Word: bonk
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Cyclists use a cutesy term to describe the complete loss of energy during a road race. They've "bonked." Let's be honest. American Floyd Landis didn't just bonk when he surrendered his maillot jaune, the Tour de France's yellow leader's jersey, during a steep Alpine climb last Wednesday. He tumbled from 1st to 11th place, a stunning 8 minutes, 8 seconds behind the leader. He giga-gagged. Choked. Race pundits didn't just write Landis off as a contender; they hurled him off the Col du Galibier. Even Landis seemed to accept his fate...
...after his big-time bonk, Landis, who suffers from a degenerative hip condition that will require replacement surgery, staged the most spectacular comeback in Tour de France history. He blazed over three steep, lung-burning mountain passes, shredding the field to win the day's 125-mile race by nearly six minutes and pull into third place in the overall standings, just 30 seconds behind ex-teammate and leader Oscar Pereiro of Spain. "He went from the penthouse to the outhouse to the moon," says Ventura. Saturday, as expected, Landis sprinted past Pereiro and Carlos Sastre, also from Spain...
...Landis wasn't going to be caught short-handed again - he ate a ton on Wednesday night, and his teammates and he packed 70 water bottles for his miraculous Thursday trip. Some riders think his "bonk" could actually have helped him. "When you suffer that kind if implosion," says Thierry Gouvenou, a French ex-Tour cyclist who now works as a pacer on many stages, "you often overcompensate afterwards: get really rehydrated, charge up the calories, get extra rest. You have all this extra wind you put into your sails to give lift...
...even if people chose to room in order to bonk each other day and night, conservatives have no right to coerce individuals who disagree from their moral perspective...
...sequel. In a breathtaking gesture, several of the dead men?s widows befriended and lived among the Waodani, and the tribe eventually converted to Christianity. One of the wives, Elisabeth Elliot, wrote about it eloquently in ?Through Gates of Splendor, ? which became a Christian classic. In combination, says Jonathan Bonk, director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center, the event, the event, coverage and aftermath ?absolutely galvanized? a generation of young evangelicals. LIFE continued to revisit the story for years...