StalkerZERO

I am assuming that Floyd will get THE BEST treatment possible when it comes time for his surgery correct? Is it possible? Can he do a Lance Armstrong and come back from what most would consider a career death? Is it possible to come back to top racing form after getting an artificial hip?

How far as the technology come when it comes to artificial hips anyway?
If I were him I would schedule the operation NEXT WEEK. No time for celebration. He has to have as much time for recovery and training for the next season if hes serious about competing again....no?

Ostuni

my mom just had it done and the doctor gave me a good description of what was done and how the technology and procedure has advanced in recent years...

my semi-educated 2-cent guess: the replacement hip will be better than the one he has now, and once the muscle and tissue that gets touched during the operation heals, and assuming all goes well, he might well could continue to race...

EDIT: he did an OLN interview and said just what you did - he wants to do the operation right away and be ready for next season....

erader

landis will be back unless there are complications. a new hip has got to better than what he has now and i think he's shown it doesn't have to be perfect for him to pedal a bike .

ed rader

ericy

My mom had a new hip put in last year. They have improved things - mainly to reduce the size of the incision, and to reduce recovery time. Floyd is only 30 years old, so he should recover more quickly than your average senior citizen. In reality, I don't think he will know for sure until after the operation and has had a chance to recover a bit.

-VELOCITY-

I would say the odds are good. You can never bet against that heart and toughness Floyd possesses.

StalkerZERO

Indeed.

Hipcycler

Yes.

He'll be fine barring any complications.

I had my right hip replaced in the fall of 2000. I was 42 at the time.

This is my 6th season of cycling and it still feels fine.

The pain in the joint will be gone, and once those muscles heal and build back up the scary thing (for the other riders) is that Floyd can be better than ever with that titanium in his leg!

Saintly Loser

Not that I'm in the same league with pro riders, let alone Landis, but I had a knee replacement two years ago, and I'm a far stronger cyclist now than I was before. If Landis was riding with a disintegrating hip joint, a better, pain-free joint can only help him. Judging from my experience, he won't have that much time off the bike. I returned to work exactly one week after the surgery. And I'm sure Landis is getting far better post-surgery treatment than I did (my surgeon had the rep of being one of the best in New York, but physical therapy was limited to what my insurance company would pay for).

Saintly Loser

I've read that ceramic replacements are the latest thing these days.

Hipcycler

Yes.
Multiple component materials used.

In my case:

--Titanium rod
--Ceramic ball
--Plastic ball sleeve

Ceramic wears the best, but it more prone to the dangers of breaking if you cash on it and it takes a hit just right....or wrong in this case.

mollusk

I'm not a doctor, don't play on on TV, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I believe that the bonding method for young recipients is different from the bonding procedue for elderly recipients. I think that for older patients the new joint is cemented in and that leads to a quicker recovery, but not longevity for the joint.

BTW, my 87 year old Dad is having a hip (re)replacement on Wednesday. He had both done a few years ago and one of them has dislocated a few times, so they are going back in to do it again.

merlinextraligh

FSA is making the bearings for them.

merlinextraligh

I have to think that hip replacement surgery would hurt his chances to win the 2007 TDF. While his reconstructed hip might be a benefit in the long run, its still major surgery, and would have to throw you back a bit in the short term. and the margins are so thin, that any competitive disadvantage and you're toast. If he has aspirations for the 2007 TDF, I would think he'd want to scrap the rest of this season, and get the surgery done asap.

oboeguy

Apparently he is having it done ASAP, in fact. His season will likely be done after a few post-Tour crits. I wonder, though, how long he will be unable to train? Guys have come back from big injuries to ride again in the same season and here Floyd will have something like 11 months to get back on the bike and into top condition. He probably won't be winning the Tour of California (excuse me, the Amgen Tour of California ) but he could be in contention for le Tour de France.

aadhils

Ask hipcycler...

smellygary

I se a lot of diversity in his future: Floyd Landis Ford of San Diego, Floyd Landis Insurance, Landis Real Estate, Landis Investments, his brother-in-law will have a motorcycle shop, that sort of thing. Maybe a Tapas bar: Tricky Hip's Chip'n Dip.

Hipcycler

I'm here, and I can shed some specific light on a couple of issues talked about here:

1. Yes on the method question. Younger recipients like myself and Floyd get something call "Pressed Fit" joint. No cement. The titanium rod is basically jammed down into the thigh bone (See my avatar) and the bone grabs onto it. This method means a lifetime application, but it does take longer to recover from this as opposed to say, an 80-year-old who receives a cement fit. You recover faster but the joint doesn't last as long. They do it that way thinking that the patient will die before the cemented replacement can wear out.

2. Lets look at my surgery as a pattern for exactly what Floyd will go through.
Consider the fact that I had the surgery done on the Monday after Thanksgiving in 2000.

--In the hospital for five days
--In-home rehab and a tough two weeks when you can do little and need help doing that much.
--Rehab out of the home.
You go from using a walker, to using crutches, to using a cane, to nothing. About six weeks total.

After that surgery at the end of November, I bought my first bike in May and could ride easy.
By the end of the summer I felt pretty good, but didn't start pushing it until the following spring.

I don't think he'll be able to do any kind of riding that will matter in terms of training for at least six months after the surgery.

After that, he could progress very fast I think. He's young. He's strong. He's Floyd.

But remember that no one has come back from this at this level....as someone pointed out earlier....this is such an elite group of athletes that it's going to make it tough for him to get back there. But I think he can and will.

MillCreek

I crashed my MTB back in 1997 and fractured my left femoral neck. The hip did not require replacement, but I still have three stainless steel pins holding it together. After the surgical recovery, there was no impact on my cycling.

harlond

Will the replacement hip be lighter than the old hip? Is it double or triple butted titanium or straight gauge? Could you install an adrenalin or glycogen pump inside the titanium tube? Or some sort of refrigeration unit to help keep core temperature in the right place? Just thinking out loud here.

flythebike

I broke my hip and femur in 1995. I get a lot of pain and stiffness there but other than that I'm ok. I still have a plate that runs the length of my femur and pins going up into my hip. I'm a third category rider and I will move up a category at the end of the year. My gut is a far bigger (ahem) obstacle to my success.

I read that there have been category ones and twos who have had hip replacements who have returned to competition and been happy with their results. I don't think this will be a problem for Floyd. How quickly he will return is probably the real question mark.

NFields

He will be fine. My orthopedic surgeon had his replaced last year after the Ride for the Roses. He has been back on the bike and is riding better than ever. He did not wreck, just had an arthritic condition worsened by standing in surgery many hours at a time over the last 15 years...he said.

NFields

Jaxbike

I had my hip replaced last fall. I was back on the bike in 30 days. Hard work in the gym restored my full leg strength in four months. I'm 63. I would expect that a world class athlete half my age will shorten that time substantially.

My main concern are the comments above about crashes. My doctor strongly advised me to avoid activities that could cause falls. I'm not sure why. I believe the ceramic material is a coating on a titanium ball and not structual component of the hip. I have fallen on my hip at a low speed on the bike with no ill affects except a very upset wife. Road rash gave away the fact that I had fallen.

I expect that Floyd will be back next season as strong as ever.

Corsaire

Next Time Landis Could Win by minutes

By Chris Carmichael


How cool was it to hear the US national anthem played on the Champs Elysees for the eighth straight year? Floyd Landis showed incredible strength and fortitude on the way to winning his first Tour de France, and not only do I believe he can win again, but I think he’ll have a much bigger lead the next time he rides into Paris in yellow.

Landis’s victory is all the more impressive when you consider how much time he gave away over the course of three weeks. He won because he was the strongest rider in the race, but the extent of his superiority isn’t accurately reflected by a winning margin of 57 seconds. He gave Oscar Pereiro about 30 minutes, lost 10 minutes in one climb, and another 30-40 seconds by starting the prologue late and then having to switch bikes. All things considered, he could have just as easily been the strongest rider in the race and finished second, third, or tenth if a few situations hadn’t gone his way.

When he and his team start planning for the next Tour de France, it’s important to avoid the trap of saying, “Well, we won the race, so we just need to do everything the same way and we’ll win again.” It’s crucial for a returning champion to make improvements from one year to the next, because you can be sure the competition will. This was one of the biggest lessons we learned with Lance Armstrong. Even though he kept winning by large margins in the second, third, and fourth years, it was only because he and the team continued to gain strength in order to stay ahead of the competition. In the end, it doesn’t matter if you win by seven minutes or two seconds, but needlessly giving away time only increases the chances you won’t win at all.

Of course, the first thing Landis has to do is get through his hip replacement surgery and make a successful return to the top of the European peloton. And while this will be a hard challenge, I think the doctors, physical therapists, coaches, friends, and family around him will give him all the tools necessary to mount a successful comeback. Depending on how long his recovery takes, it’s hard to say whether he’ll be a contender for the 2007 Tour de France or if he’ll have to wait until 2008 to go for number two. Whichever year it is, there are few areas he and John Lelange, the director of Phonak, will want to address.

Operations
Phonak seemed to struggle a bit with the technical aspects of the Tour de France in the first few days. Landis’s time trial position didn’t meet with the officials’ approval and had to be changed right before the prologue. A cut rear tire and the ensuing wheel change made him late for his start. Then the handlebars broke and he had to switch bikes. The team seemed to learn and adjust throughout the race, and by the time the final time trial rolled around, everything seemed to be humming along much better.

Preparing for the next yellow jersey campaign, the team needs to closely examine all of the jobs, people, and processes involved in keeping the team operating smoothly. The little details that seem to have nothing to do with racing a bicycle can make a huge difference in the team’s performance. Again, as we learned with the Discovery Channel, operations around the equipment, transportation, laundry, and even pre-stage access to the bus run smoothly, it reduces stress on the riders and allows them to just focus on racing and recovering.

Team strength
Floyd Landis’s team provided good support for him, but there’s a lot of room for improvement. The team seemed to struggle with the duties of setting the pace on the front of the field, and the competition was able to isolate him very quickly in the mountains. If it hadn’t been for a once-in-a-career, 130-kilometer breakaway that brought him back into third place, being isolated on the road to La Toussuire would have lost him the Tour de France. Landis pulled off an amazing feat to ride himself back into contention, but it’s not a good strategy to rely on efforts like that to secure his next yellow jersey.

It would be advantageous for the next Tour de France squad Landis and Lelange build to include stronger climbers. Landis can withstand the fastest pace the competition can set, but he needs teammates who can help him control the lead group, chase through the valleys, and make sure he’s always supplied with food and fluids.

Food, fluids, and recovery strategies
I talked to Allen Lim, coach and advisor to Floyd Landis, during Stage 17 and he told me that even after all the food and fluids Landis took in after overheating the previous day, the Phonak leader was still one kilogram (2.2 pounds) lighter than normal in the morning. He instructed Landis to keep his head and body wet in order to keep his core temperature down, and the dozens of bottles he dumped over his head showed that he listened. It took losing 10 minutes on one climb to learn that lesson, and I can assure you that he’ll never make the same mistake again. For Armstrong, bonking on the Joux-Plane in 2000 was the impetus to make consistent access to food and bottles a team priority.

Every time Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France, we took a few weeks to let the accomplishment sink in and then went right back to work on putting all the elements of the next victory in place. Armstrong didn’t go into those races with specific goals of winning by five, six, or seven minutes, but managed to build large leads by doing everything in his power to avoid losing time on any stage of the race. The next time Floyd Landis returns to the Tour de France with the intent to win, he’ll probably be the strongest man in the race again. If he and his team make the right changes between now and then, he could roll into Paris with a four-minute lead.

Corsaire

Braveheart

Okay, let's get a real debate going here. Forget this titanium stuff - he should get a carbon fiber replacement. I'm thinking a little Carbon Nanotube action - maybe BMC can make it? A permanent sponsorship opportunity there.

If not, steel is real.