Ten days prior to the start of the team's first training camp of the new year, Floyd Landis, one of the key members of the United States Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, suffered a broken hip bone Saturday afternoon in a fall on his bicycle.

Landis suffered a complete oblique fracture of the right femoral neck when he went down hard on his bike returning from a workout at his local gym in Murrieta, Calif., where he lives.  Landis underwent 90 minutes of surgery at Inland Valley Medical Center in nearby Wildomar Saturday evening and had three titanium screws placed in his hip.

I was about 20 minutes from home and returning from the gym, said Landis.  I was riding down a short, steep hill that levels out and then turns right and I crashed when making the right turn.  It has been windy the last few days and there must have been some sand on the road I didn't see.  Where the street leveled out, my front wheel just washed out and I went down on my right side at about 25 miles an hour.

I knew something was wrong with my hip when I couldn't get my foot out of the pedal.  I had to crawl to the side of the road and then telephoned my wife.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to ride home.

I hope it's not too bad, said Johan Bruyneel, the USPS team's director sportif, who suffered a similar injury during his professional cycling career.  This will definitely affect the start of his season.  Floyd is one of our key riders for the Tour de France but I'm pretty confident he can get ready.  I expect him to be racing in April, so it's not a disaster.  We will change his program to get him ready for the Tour and then maybe to also race the Tour of Spain (in September) as well.

My conversation with Johan made me feel better, added Landis.  He overcame something like this himself so that helps.  We talked about me making my first peak at the Tour and then taking part in other races possibly leading up to the Vuelta.  That's the thing about our sport - the season is so long and there are so many races.  I wouldn't have chosen this, but it could be a nice schedule.