His next surprise was his collapse during the 16th of 20 daily stages, when he appeared to be riding in slow motion on the last of four climbs in the Alps.
"I had a very bad day on the wrong day," he said after finishing in 23rd place, 10 minutes 4 seconds behind the winner, and dropping from first place over all to 11th, 8:08 behind the new leader, Oscar Pereiro, a Spaniard with Caisse d'Epargne.
Although Landis offered no explanation for his collapse, his physiologist, Dr. Allen Lim, did.
"That bad day was the accumulation of fatigue," Lim said. "At some point, the body goes into shutdown mode and there's nothing you can do about it.
"It wasn't a good day for his body to want to lighten the load, but he really had no control over it. His body was going into self-repair mode."
That sounded good, especially the next day - the now-legendary 17th stage to Morzine - when Landis romped to a victory by more than five minutes after a solo breakaway that turned into an individual time trial over 125 kilometers, or 77 miles. He moved into third place over all, 30 seconds behind Pereiro, and sealed his victory two days later in a long race against the clock.
In a news conference after the time trial, Landis contradicted Lim's explanation.
"I forgot to eat," the rider said. "By the time I started to eat, it was too late. I bonked," the sport's word for running out of power.
"He admitted he bonked?" a disbelieving Lim said later. "He did bonk. He came back to the hotel and kept saying, 'What a jerk, what an idiot.'"
Stranger and stranger, concealing a commonplace bonk.
