Saturday, July 22, 2006

RIDE AROUND ON MY BICYCLE LIKE A PONY: How cool is American cyclist Floyd Landis? I asked Bill from SoQuoted to explain:

On Thursday, Floyd Landis rode into the cycling history books with what many say is one of the greatest single day rides, ever. Counted out just the day before, he is once again expected to win the Tour de France. Combined with his total collapse on Wednesday, I think this could rate as one of the most epic performances in any sport. Rather than try to explain how Floyd's ride compares to Lemond or Merckx or a handful of others most of us have never heard of, I'll compare to a few other sports.

I came up with a few other epic performances under pressure. What Landis did beats most, if not all, of these. Any others to add to the list?

Listed in no particular order and with the admission I was a Twins fan and no World Series is better than 1991.

  • Don Larsen's perfect World Series game
  • Tiger Woods' 1997 Masters. Set or tied 25 Master's records
  • Magic Johnson, game 6, 1980 finals: 42 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals
  • Kirby Puckett, 1991 World Series, game 6. Game-winning home run, single, triple, sacrifice fly, stole a base, scored a run, robbed Ron Gant of an extra base hit.
  • Jack Morris, 1991 World Series, game 7, Ten shutout innings.
  • Michael Jordan "flu game." 1997 championship against Utah. Suffering from a stomach virus, scored 38 points.
  • 1980 Wimblebon final - Borg and McEnroe.
For what it's worth, I've always been partial to Pete Sampras' quarterfinals win over Alex Correjta at the 1996 US Open.

Commenting on today's time trials is more than welcome.

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