Heart of the matter

FLOYD LANDIS never saw the stump that sent him flying. Landis strayed from the track into a patch of weeds while screaming down a steep descent during his first lap at the 24 Hours of Canaan, a mountain bike relay race in West Virginia. Landis was propelled into the air like a circus clown from a cannon when his front wheel hit the concealed log.

“The wheel took on the shape of the stump,” recalls Will Geoghegan, one of Landis’ teammates at the 1994 race. “It was like a cartoon.”