Saturday was a scary day for Team Discovery. One man cannot win the Tour de France, it takes a team. As the pace churned up, T-Mobile maneuvered successfully to separate Lance Armstrong from his team. Their three top riders, Jan Ullrich, Andreas Kloden and Alexandre Vinokourov blistered ahead, dropping all but the elite riders. Lance was separated alone against three. The strategy from that point was simple. The three T-Mobile riders could simply rotate attacks, forcing Lance to catch them, eventually wearing him down. Lance was alone with no team members in sight.
Levi Leipheimer, also an American, but riding for Team Gerolsteiner, found himself in the same boat. In the middle of an attack, without water in a scorching heat, Levi had to make a decision. Stay with the attack or drop back and fetch water. Either way, he risked getting blown out of the race. Head down, against the melting pavement, he drove forward to catch.
Lance reached down and handed Levi a bottle. Lance needed a team. Levi needed a team. Floyd Landis (PHO) offered another bottle and now they were three Musketeers against the trio from T-Mobile. They wore different jerseys, but they swore a short allegiance to fend off the attacks.
Ultimately, Lance was successful on the day, gaining significant precious seconds on Jan Ullrich. If he had not stopped for a small bit of teambuilding, things might have been very different. You can read the entire story from reporter Michael Dugard with Florida Sports.
Tuesday marks the last day in the Pyranees. Lance is one step closer to Seven. -TF
Standings after Stage 15
1 001 ARMSTRONG, Lance USA DSC 62:09:59.000 00:00:00.000
2 021 BASSO, Ivan ITA CSC 62:12:45.000 00:02:46.000
3 057 RASMUSSEN, Mickael DEN RAB 62:13:08.000 00:03:09.000
4 011 ULLRICH, Jan GER TMO 62:15:57.000 00:05:58.000
5 031 MANCEBO, Francisco ESP IBA 62:16:30.000 00:06:31.000
6 164 LEIPHEIMER, Levi USA GST 62:17:34.000 00:07:35.000
7 066 LANDIS, Floyd USA PHO 62:19:32.000 00:09:33.000
8 019 VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO 62:19:37.000 00:09:38.000
9 101 MOREAU, Christophe FRA C.A 62:21:46.000 00:11:47.000
10 014 KLÖDEN, Andréas GER TMO 62:22:00.000 00:12:01.000