While the Tour de France and hip hop may seem truly remote, consider these statements regarding de facto Tour winner Floyd Landis:

"When he’s cycling he’s told me that he gets angry at the pain," said Daniel Coyle of Outside Magazine. "That’s how he motivates himself. The hip begins to hurt. It hurts him all the time. It keeps him awake at night, at times."…

"You don’t have soft suburban kids winning the Tour de France," Coyle said. "You’ve got tough kids from the wrong side of the tracks with big wounds."