This year’s Tour de France never looked easy. Lance Armstrong (DSC) always considered Jan Ullrich (TMO) from Team T-Mobile to be his fiercest competition. While America cheered for Lance, there was no slack in the energy to unseat him. Ullrich publicly stated that the Tour de France was not worth winning unless Lance Armstrong was competing. Indeed, T-Mobile put together a dangerous team. The treacherous trio of Jan Ullrich, Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Kloden came to bury Lance, no love lost.
I said it would take a team to win.
Last Saturday, T-Mobile launched a new strategy. Break up Discovery and isolate Lance from his team. It almost worked, except for one thing. T-Mobile, themselves, could not work together as a team. Though Ullrich has been the legacy chieftain, both Vinokourov and Kloden carried an agenda to contest his leadership. They did not work together and Lance survived (well, more than survived, he kicked their ass).
Wednesday was the day the wheels came off. Kloden abandoned the race (after suffering an injury on Tuesday) and Vinokourov announced he was leaving T-Mobile at the end of the Tour. Ullrich, now by himself, remains the leader. Their tactics might have worked, but for the lack of a team.
Team Discovery took another Stage win on Wednesday (Stage 17) when Paolo Savoldelli (DSC) escaped with the first breakaway group. George Hincapie (DSC) captured Stage 15 on Sunday and Yaroslav Popovych (DSC) is ahead in the Young Rider competition. Lance Armstrong (DSC) maintains a 2 minute 46 second lead over Ivan Basso (CSC).
Thursday is 189km with two category 3 and two category 2 climbs. Small skirmishes may erupt as this may be the last opportunity for a shakeup before the time trial on Saturday. Outside of the time trials, if Lance is to make a run for a Stage win, this might be it. -TF
Overall Standings after Stage 17
1 001 ARMSTRONG, Lance USA DSC 72:55:50.000 00:00:00.000
2 021 BASSO, Ivan ITA CSC 72:58:36.000 00:02:46.000
3 057 RASMUSSEN, Mickael DEN RAB 72:58:59.000 00:03:09.000
4 011 ULLRICH, Jan GER TMO 73:01:48.000 00:05:58.000
5 031 MANCEBO, Francisco ESP IBA 73:02:21.000 00:06:31.000
6 164 LEIPHEIMER, Levi USA GST 73:03:25.000 00:07:35.000
7 019 VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO 73:05:28.000 00:09:38.000
8 044 EVANS, Cadel AUS DVL 73:05:39.000 00:09:49.000
9 066 LANDIS, Floyd USA PHO 73:05:43.000 00:09:53.000
10 101 MOREAU, Christophe FRA C.A 73:07:57.000 00:12:07.000
Do you have any idea on what Armstrong said to Evans after he sneaked in front of him and taking the 11th place on the last Tuesday stage? “Why have you done that?” It is known that Armstrong intimidates the other riders and that anyone who does not obey, as Candel did, is punished? Years for now, after each tentative escape from the peloton, Candel will be followed by the Discovery team, which will lead the peloton into Evans’ annihilation. Now, that’s the “team spirit”, and Armstrong kicked T-Mobile asses because they dared to walk outside the leadership of the Great Lance.
Do you have any idea on why the official Armstrong website went basically dead since 2001 and why the guestbook was deleted?
Lucian,
I don’t know which website you are referring to. A quick glance at http://www.lancearmstrong.com shows a relatively updated portal to three other sites, http://www.thepaceline.com, http://www.livestrong.org and http://www.team.discovery.com. Each of those sites has its own objectives, but looks relatively up to date. The guestbook may have disappeared because it got full. If you really want to send a message to Armstrong, you can follow this link to his hometown newspaper in Austin, Texas.