Landis haveing Hip Surgery After Tour?

Landis may face hip surgery after Tour
By Rupert Guinness
VeloNews.com
This report filed July 9, 2006
American Tour de France favorite Floyd Landis (Phonak) will hold a press conference on Monday to respond to press reports that he is suffering from a degenerative condition that could threaten his career and may undergo hip surgery following this year's race.

Landis, sitting second in the Tour de France behind race leader Sergei Gontchar (T-Mobile), will meet the press on Monday afternoon at his team hotel in Bordeaux, where the 4500-strong Tour entourage is based for an official rest day.

On Sunday, the website www.bicycling.com announced that Landis's cycling days "may be numbered," reporting on a degenerative condition called osteonecrosis, or bone death, that affects his right hip.

Also called avascular necrosis, the condition is the same one that forced Bo Jackson, the star football and baseball player, to get a hip replacement in 1992.

Following the bicycling.com announcement, The New York Times published a story by Samuel Abt of the International Herald Tribune alongside a more detailed piece slated to run next weekend in the newspaper's Sunday magazine.

Landis (Phonak) proved he is one of the most favored contenders to win this year's Tour by finishing second in Saturday's stage seven time trial. Gontchar is not considered a challenger for the title. His hip condition has its origin in a 2002 training accident, the reports say.

"The hip, instead of rebuilding itself, has broken down as degenerative scar tissue, closed blood vessels and caused the ball on the hip to collapse, putting Landis in constant pain," the website reported.

Surgery to treat the condition after the 2004 season failed, according to the site, adding that the procedure impaired Landis's 2005 season and prompted fears his career would be over.

But Landis's fortunes turned around early this year. Before starting the Tour de France, he already had wins in the Tour of California, Tour of Georgia and Paris-Nice stage races.

"It doesn't affect his riding, of course -- don't worry," Phonak sporting director John Lelangue told The Associated Press, adding that he had known about the condition since January. He declined to provide additional details, saying more information would be made available during Monday's news conference.

The Tour will resume on Tuesday with stage nine, a 169.5km leg from Bordeaux to Dax from where it will head into the Pyrenees for two days on Wednesday and Thursday.