I don't see it as a huge gain in form. Landis is a classy rider. His VO2Max has been measured at 90. Armstrong was worried in 2005 because he knew Landis' VO2Max was higher than his. I tend to believe Landis. The 2005 Tour was a key race. It was the first time he had been able to ride for himself with team support. He and his coach learned a lot. I think that was where they determined that it was possible that he could win the Tour. He adjusted his training and maybe adjusted his doping program also.Crankyfeet said:Well it does seem implausible that he would only start doping properly in 2006. However, he may not have been on the full program as a domestique before. With the covert operations required to transport blood bags around etc..
But how do you explain his huge form gains at the start of the 2006 season?
He is known to train very intensely. That is not just coming from him. Former teammates and people who have trained with him say the same thing. In Spring of this year he was out of shape at a MTB charity race. He got chicked. While touring the country to promote his book, he could not have been doing much training. He then shows up in Colorado to do Leadville and spent just a few weeks training for it. Rumors with locals are that he was doing 150 mile road rides at altitude. At PB100 he smoked the course and broke the course record. I found that really damned impressive. He must have trained his ass off in those few weeks.
Phonak was ending support, so there was a motivation to get results early in the 2006 season. The competition at California and Georgia is not very good compared to European races. Landis took second in Georgia the year before. He only had to beat two or three other riders of the caliber of Tommy D.. Landis' win in P-N was good, but it did not require him to be much better than he was in the previous year's Tour. Landis got good results but I am not convinced he took some giant, dope fueled leap above where he was the year before. It might have just meant he planned to peak in the Spring as well as July.