**Official** Tour de France/Lance thread **Official**

[Entity]

Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
So is Armstrong ahead by 67 seconds?

Yup.

"After the crash, I had a big rush of adrenaline. I told myself 'Come on Lance, you must win the Tour today,'" said Armstrong, who increased his lead from 15 seconds to 1:07.

Rob

 

[Entity]

Originally posted by: Izzo
yeah, Vinokourov got his ass handed to him. I'm glad to see Lance fight back. I was getting a little worried with all of his negative assessments of his health and legs.

So what's the scoop with the last time trial? Is it mostly flat, a tough climb, good for sprinters, or good for climbers, etc.? (i.e. is it possible for Ullrich to catch up?)

It is possible for a sprinter like Ullrich to catch up. Lemond did it, and that was without a great supporting team.

Lemond started the last stage, a short 15 mile (25km) time-trial, with a nearly insurmountable 50 second deficit from Laurent Fignon, the Tour de France winner in 1983 and 1984.

Miraculously, Lemond won the time-trial by 58 seconds over Fignon, giving Lemond a victory in the Tour by 8 seconds, the smallest margin of victory in the history of the race.

Rob

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: CPA
Lance kicks major A$$ today!

I'm not a big bicycle racing fan, but I always keep an eye on Lance and the Tour. Today's run was what makes Lance the greatest American athlete today. The guy falls again, but instead of putting his head down and calling it quits, gets back up and crushes the field. Go Lance!

Today is a great day for cycling. Show's that sportsmanship still exists in the hearts of the riders.

 

[glen]

Is it in the bag or not for Lance?
I thought all the previous years he was unreachable by this point in the Tour.

 

[boyRacer]

Originally posted by: glen
Is it in the bag or not for Lance?
I thought all the previous years he was unreachable by this point in the Tour.

Not quite... he had bigger leads in the previous years. The 67 second gap could be easily made up in the next TT if Lance has another bad day. I think he lost the first TT by 1:08. But Lance seems to do what he needs to do right when he needs to do it so you never know.

 

[Excelsior]

Dunno, but itll sure as hell be an exciting finish.

 

[Fausto]

Holy fscking sh*t. That was one of the best tour stages I've ever seen.


Props to Jan and the rest of the leading group for waiting when Lance and Mayo fell. One of the nice things about cycling is that all the riders have a strong sense of fair play. No one wants to win because the other guy fell down; they want to win because they were the strongest man in the race.

 

[Fausto]

Some good quotes by the riders after yesterday's events

Up the road, Jan Ullrich was not attacking, but waiting for Lance. "It was correct that when Armstrong crashed, I didn't attack, because cycling is a fair-play sport," said Ullrich after the stage. Tyler Hamilton (CSC) agreed. "After Lance crashed, the other guys kept on going, but it's an unwritten rule that if the Maillot Jaune crashes, you give him a chance to get back," said hamilton. "I didn't feel like other guys were waiting, so it was my responsibility to go up front and tell them to slow down and wait a few seconds."

Ullrich and Hamilton's sporting gestures will go down as a great moment in Tour de France history, as echoed by Johan Bruyneel, who said, "the fact that Ullrich waited for (Lance) was amazing. It was the attitude of a true champion."

Armstrong was aware that Ullrich didn't attack when he crashed, saying "the fact of the matter is that I did the same two years ago on the descent of the Col de Peyresourde. I was with a few guys and said 'look, we can't race until we know [Ullrich] is okay, if he's back in the race.' What goes around comes around, so I'm very grateful to Jan for remembering my gesture two years ago. Perhaps that's why he did that today. The tables were turned two years ago and I think that what I did two years ago was the correct thing and what Jan did today was the correct thing."