[Le Tour 2003]Stage 8 - Nowhere to Hide

[Tour Reporter]

Stage 8 - Sallances - L'Alpe d'Huez - 219 km

If it were just L'Alpe d'Huez, this stage would be a punisher - long, 
hot roads which lead to the dramatic finishing location on one of 
classic Tour climbs.

But, before the riders even get  to the 21 switchbacks of history and 
legend, they cross 4 categorized climbs - beginning with a couple of 
category 3 climbs in the first 30 kilometers, then followed by the 
one-two punch of the Col du Telegraphe (Category 2 - 1566 meters - 12.1 
km of climbing at an average of 6.8%), and then with barely enough time 
to exhale, the monsterous Col du Galibier (Hors Categorie - 2645 meters 
- 18.5 km of climbing at a 6.7% average).

So, who will have the horsepower today? This early stage in serious 
mountains will further distill those who can handle the efforts to the 
fellow-travelers.

Certainly, the US Postal Service rode a wise race yesterday - there was
no question that if Lance had attacked over the top of the Col de Ramaz,
there was a strong possibility that a suicide descent could bring him
back before the finish. Two riders of note made semi-serious moves
yesterday.  The first attack came from Alexandre Vinokourov of Telekom,
but the climbers of the USPS simply increased pressure and slowly let
him cook, reeling him steadily back without apparant damage to
themselves. The second jump came from iBanesto.com's Francisco Mancebo,
who made a bit of a cheeky move on the last climb of the day.
Regardless of whether Mancebo just wanted some cheap mountain points or
had visions of escape, Lance immediately accellerated from a few riders
back to match his speed.

Some rumours abound that he will not attack today - certainly, it is
very early in a very long race, and it might make things easier to not
have to defend the yellow jersey for the upcoming two weeks - not to
mention the need to be very focused with his exertions.  If Lance waits
until stage 12 and the first time trial before truly dominating, he have
two Pyrenean climbs on the next stage which finish the stage at 
Ax-Domaines in stage 13, and the multiple category 1 climbs of stage 14 
finishing with a descent into Loudenvielle, and stage 15 ending at the 
hors categorie climb to Luz Ardiden. However, there are a lot of 
climbers who have focused on attacking him in those mountains.

No longer challenging him are a few more riders - Not rolling away from 
the start today at Sallanches is Fassa Bortolo's Aitor Gonzalez, who has 
shown no spark in this year's race. Teammate Sven Montgomery joined him 
in the bus back to Italy and Marco Velo is said to have dropped out 
yesterday as well - in fact they say there are only three riders left 
who can call themselves Fassa Bortolian. Main man Ivan Basso - the 
talented Italian rider - has signed in and toed the start today.

On the road today are 183 riders of the starting 195, leaving 14 of 22
intact.

Over the two initial climbs, Virenque nicked the KoM points, solidifying 
his hold on the poka-dot jersey on the even of Bastille Day.

As we pick up the unfolding coverage, Quick Step's Italian National 
Champion Paolo Bettini sets tempo with 87 km to go as we near the crest 
of the Telegraphe.  Saeco's Gerrit Glomser has scooted away from a 
semi-select group which includes pretty much everyone you'd expect 
(except for a once-again-suffering Santiago Botero).  Simoni remains 
attached at the back end of the group.

Glomser chases Pierrick Fredrigo from Credit Agricole who has set his 
sails tight and rolls upwards on what is now a solo move - he'd had a 
few riders in a breakaway that assembled before the 2nd sprint point, 
but they drifted back as the road turned upwards. Fredrigo hangs onto 
his lead, with Glomser rolling over about a minute back.

Virenque accellerates away from the bunch to take third place KoM 
points, 2:20 behind Fredrigo.

Almost immediately the road pitches up again on the Col du Galibier, and
5 riders from USPS set up shop at the front of the group of 45 or so
riders - including the amazing George Hincapie, a big man who has
clearly learned to climb powerfully. Rolling ever upwards, they gather 
in Fredrigo and while Simoni is again drifting away from the competitors 
in this year's race.  Glomser remains away out of eyesight around some 
of the bends of the naggingly unending climb to the highest point of 
this year's Tour.

It's difficult to judge for sure, but the presence of Jan Ullrich and a 
  Team Bianchi teammate indicates that he has prepared well for the 
inclines.  CSC's Tyler Hamilton, who must've had his nerve endings 
removed at some point in his existence, rolls along as well.  Lead now 
down to 5 seconds, Glomser feels the hot breath of the USPS on his 
shoulders.

David Millar has lost touch with the Armstrong group, giving up the
tempo as the group strings out slightly.

Michael Rogers has hung in, riding with the big boys as Simoni keeps
allowing daylight to appear between him and the leading bunch.  He feels
the jello forming in his legs as he rolls it back up to the group one
more time, assisted by a teammate.

67 km to go on this stage as we near the 8,600 foot top of the Galibier,
well above the treeline in the magnificent French Alps.  Hincapie leads
nearly a team picture of USPS on the upward charge as Ullrich sits
impassively behind their pacemaking.

Simoni is chopped off the back of the group with 3 km to go to the
summit, as he pulls around a corner and sees the switchbacks which still
remain.  For a minute or two, I thought he might be putting on the
"Rope-A-Dope" show that Lance pulled a couple years ago, but he seems to
really be taking things to excess.  His only hope to get reattached
before the stunningly steep starting pitches of L'Alpe d'Huez lies with
his admittedly strong descending skills. Still ticking over the gears
smoothly in the slipstream of the USPS are Vini-Caldirola's Stefano
Garzelli and Christophe Moreau from Credit Agricole.  An Alessio climber
sits up close, but I can't tell if it's Pellizotti or Caucchioli.  Well,
I'm corrected by the announcers - it's Swiss climber Laurent Dufaux.

Hincapie has shut it down and begins the slow roll backwards.  Chechu
Rubiera takes over the pacemaking as they are now within 1 km of the
crest and the blessed relief of descending.

The so-far-quiet man of the Tour, Stefano Garzelli skips it up a gear or 
two and punches out from the bunch.  Postal does not respond to the 
effort, but those riders who have their eye on the KoM jersey swarm out 
like angry honets.

Virenque responds slowly and manages to get himself boxed in behind some 
slower riders, so he cannot respond and wobbles a bit trying to find 
daylight.  Francisco Mancebo gives him much more of a battle, flaring 
out to the very edge of the narrow road and bumping elbows with a 
spectator or two ahead. But Garzelli moves back ahead to take the first 
place points.

Cresting the Galibier with a teammate, Simoni has lost 1:01, just a bit 
in front of some of the slightly relaxing and recovering USPS riders who 
were pacemaking on the lower parts of the climb.


French National Champion Didier Rous from La Boulangere (which I guess 
I'm beginning to spell correctly...)has skipped himself out away with 
Mikel Astarloza from Ag2R-Prevoyance on the descent.  They work 
themselves out to a minute and a half, alternating highly aerodynamic 
positions with attempts to stretch out their screaming leg muscles.


Riders are regaining on the descent as the roads continue downward 
toward the rendevous with the final climb of the day -

CRASH in the first group.  Roberto Heras of the USPS has gone down on
the descent  - it seems that he touched wheels on the descent with
another rider as the cameras pick things up from way too high for good
detail.  But Heras bounces up extremely quickly and gets right back up 
and rides away before the team car can even reach him.  The other rider
involved may have been Lance Armstrong, as evidenced by him not waiting
by any stretch of the imagination for even the briefest of moments.
Race Radio reports also seem to indicate Armstrong involved.

Rous and Astarloza are now on the start of the final climb - 13.8 km to
go, 21 switchbacks of pain - helmets are off now as is allowed when 
there is finishing climb.

At the head of the now-swelled chase group, the USPS hammers out a 
strong pace - they are suddenly flying up the steep start to the climb 
as though leading out a sprint on a flat road.

Virenque immediately pops off the back and falling back as the USPS rips 
up the roadway, leaving sparks and smoke in their wake. Manuel Beltran, 
Heras and Chechu Rubiera continue setting a blistering pace as dropped 
riders litter the road and seem to want to hide among massive crowd who 
press in around them.

It's simpler to tell who isn't getting spit out the back - Alexandre 
Vinokourov from Telekom, Christophe Moreau from Credit Agricole, and
Tyler Hamilton somehow hold on as the extreme hurt gets ladeled out with 
a big spoon. Armstrong takes a quick look back and sees wreckage behind 
him -- Beloki has fallen back, Ullrich is not near any camera.

Suddenly it is only Heras and Armstrong, but Moreau and Hamilton find 
some accelleration left, enabling them to stay in touch.  No sign of 
Ullrich.

Riders are recovering and beginning to regain some sense of 
equillibrium.  Euskatel-Euskadi's strong young rider Iban Mayo - who 
strongly challenged Armstrong at the Dauphine-Libere - has moved back up 
to the back of the group. Hamilton remains right in the slipstream.

Up front, Astorloza fires away up the roadway trying to lose Rous.

Garzelli and Ullrich ride together on the road, although it is unclearn 
- they look to have at least dropped back a bit, but it's hard to tell 
how far.

10 km to go - all of it upwards.

Beloki has reattached and follows that up with an attack - the cheeky 
bugger.  He gets a gap and Armstrong calmly sits in behind Heras and 
watches.  Beloki has now gained the lead as he catches the breakaway pair.

Almost immediately, the Armstrong group catches Astorloza/Rous pair and 
they show now intention of matching their torrid pace.  Heras continues 
setting the pace - Virenque has already lost over two minutes.

Beloki has edged out by 12 seconds as Armstrong takes over the 
pacemaking, Hamilton tucked into his slipstream.

Mayo has held on the back of this group, as Beloki is within 8 km of the 
finish.  Armstrong has now steadily and methodically brought himself 
back up to Beloki - who looks back and wobbles slightly, out of the saddle.

The Gang of Four rolls along at the head of events -
Armstrong - Beloki - Hamilton - Mayo

Now Mayo attacks fiercely and moves away from the group - Beloki looks 
to be laboring slightly and does not respond.  Mayo is more than 6 
minutes back on the overall, but he is a serious climbing threat. 
Beloki surges again and Armstrong follows him quickly.

It is now 2:22 to Virenque who shows no sign of being able make up ground.

Hamilton has moved hard! Armstrong carefully brings the pace back up and 
they all recover a bit and look at one another - David Exteberria 
manages to throw himself up the mountain and attach himself - but, 
somehow the broken-boned Hamilton surges again and gets out to another 
gap.  Of course, they decide it's time to go to a commercial....

Out and away, Mayo continues flying up the roadway.  He has phenomonal 
speed - it looks like he is on the flat roads.  He has now increased his 
gap to 30 seconds ahead.

Armstrong follows another Beloki attack, matches the effort and they all 
sit for a second or so - still going faster on the incline than most of 
us could on the flats.

Mayo is now 44 seconds up on the Armstrong group.

Roberto Heras and Vinokourov have reattached as the pace seems to yo-yo 
a bit each time one of the riders surges.

Heras now takes over the pacemaking, and Lance moves in behind him.
iBanesto's Mancebo claws his way back up to the leaders, back twisted 
horribly, looking as though he's being beaten within an inch of 
conciousness, but nevertheless regaining the group. A shot from in front 
of the swelled Armstrong group finds Lance actually looking very calm, 
despite the extreme efforts of matching such a variety of attacks.

Euskatel-Euskadi's Roberto Laiseko has climbed up to the lead group.

Vinokourov winds up an accelleration from the back of the bunch and
moves away, continuing the combine of riders who seem to have focused
their attacks upon Armstrong.  They seem to sense some weakness - blood 
on the water, so to speak - although the strategic goal of Armstrong and 
the USPS is to win the race, not every stage. He is managing to put time 
into Ullrich on this climb, which he would be hard pressed to do on the 
dead flat Individual Time Trial.

Stunning to watch the repeated attacks and surges - they seem not to stop.

They seem focused more on attacking Armstrong than regaining the flying 
Mayo - now with a gap at 1:05.

Basso has attached himself - he had disappeared during the insane 
accellerations at the bottom of the hill, but mustered the poise 
necessary to get into a climbing rhythm of his own. Now, he's in the 
fire, though.

Mayo rolls under the 5 km to go banner.

Hamilton winds it up and takes advantage of a lull in the pace to move
away again.  Beloki, Basso and Armstrong again catch his surge, with 
back up to him with Haimar Zubeldia - who may have been the one we 
thought was Etxebarria earlier.  Beloki punches it again, and Armstrong 
somehow continues to find the power to match him pedal for pedal.

Vinokourov hits the 4 km banner with the panache he's shown all season, 
rocking and rolling, trying to find every ounce of power in his 
weakening hips and legs.

Virenque is in a world of hurt, jersey matted against him with the sweat 
of his effort, but conintuing to plug out a decent enough cadence. Young 
rider Michael Rogers climbs alongside, focused at little more that his 
hands on his bars.  Yet, he too is hanging on.

Mayo hammers inside of 3 km, while a quick shift down to Vinokourov 
shows him suffering and losing time to the continually surging group of 
Zabeldia, Basso, Beloki, Hamilton and Armstrong.  They trade glances, 
marking one another and Hamilton moves again - again they claw him back.

Mayo now has a 1:45 gap over Vinokourov.

Beloki moves again, this time Hamilton could not hold on to the group on 
that last attack and has drifted back.

2 km to go for Mayo.  He shows no sign of slowing.

The cameras pick up Ullrich on a switchback or two -- his skin looks
like it's lit by electic lights and he's pouring sweat with the effort 
of climbing. He has latched onto Pietro Caucchioli of Alessio and the 
two of them will themselves onward.

Now the once-dropped but recovering Christophe Moreau fights his way up 
to the tail of Ullrich and focuses on the big German's rear wheel.

Mayo under the 1 km banner - jersey split open and flapping in the wind.
As expected (or maybe required by contract), he zips up the jersey  and 
begins blowing kisses to the crowd.  (I mean he's required to zip up his 
jersey, not blow kisses...)  Smiling broadly and making the big turns 
toward the finish, he takes a final look back - but there's nothing but
team cars and officials within eyesight.  He benefits greatly from his 
dynamic attack and strong efforts - he has won the stage at L'Alpe d'Huez!

Vinokourov somehow finds the energy to keep the pedals ticking over 
towards the finish.  Hammering aroudn the last couple turns in the 
drops, he moves hard to the line, crossing in 1:44

About 30 secondsd later, Armstrong lines his sprint in second place 
behind Beloki and fires out as they hit the final straight - he moves
decidedly past Beloki to lead the bunch across the line at around 2:11

Heras rolls toward the line, tailed by a scrambling 
Moreau/Ullrich/Caucchioli trio - they are somewhere in the vicinity of
3:40 behind the leader - which would be about a minute and half behind
Armstrong's time.

Virenque and Rogers come in about 9:30 back with a couple other riders 
who had latched onto them.

I finally relax my jaw.  It's been a stunning stage, with more attacks 
on Armstrong than have been seen in the past years combined.  It has 
seemed that the last 30-odd minutes have been filled with constant 
attacks and surges - all of which had to be covered by one man. Lance 
did not attack, but responded relentlessly to others.  It's been the 
first time he has not been the obvious aggressor, which causes a fairly 
large wave of uneasiness.  In post-stage interviews, he allowed as how 
he did not feel strong on the Galibier, and was having trouble following 
the pace.  Whether it's the pressure of the drive for Tour number 5 or 
just a bit of residual weakness from a pre-Tour intestinal virus is 
certainly beyond my ability to speculate.

With all of that, it's important to remember who is trying on the Yellow
Jersey - and that would be none other than Lance Armstrong of the USPS. 
  If nothing else, he is aware that there are more miles to cover before 
it's all said and done. He also did manage to increase his gap over 
Ullrich, exactly in the place he needed to - on the climbs.

Stage 8 - Results
1 - Iban Mayo - Euskatel-Euskadi - 5:57:30
2 - Alexandre Vinokourov - Telekom - @ 1:45
3 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - @ 2:12
4 - Francisco Mancebo - iBanesto.com - @ 2:12
5 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ 2:12
6 - Joseba Beloki - ONCE-Eroski - @ 2:12
7 - Tyler Hamilton - CSC - @ 2:12
8 - Ivan Basso - Fassa Bortolo - Fassa Bortolo - @ 2:12
9 - Roberto Laiseka - Euskatel-Euskadi - @ 2:12
10 - Petro Caucchioli - Alessio - @ 3:36

Overall Standings -
Malliot Juane - Lance Armstrong - USPS - 35:12:50
2 - Joseba Beloki - @ :40
3 - Iban Mayo - @ 1:10
4 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ 1:17
5 - Francisco Mancebo - @ 1:37
6 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 1:52
7 - Roberto Heras - @ 1:58
8 - Jan Ullrich - Team Bianchi - @ 2:10
9 - Ivan Basso - Fasso Bortolo - @ 2:25
10 - Jorg Jaksche - ONCE-Eroski - @ 3:19


Tomorrow's Stage -
Stage 9 - Bourg D'Oisans - Gap - 184 km
This almost looks backwards, as it begins with a couple of thumpers -
Cat 1 Col du Lautaret (25.5 km of climbing although at a more manageable
average gradient of 4 percent) followed by the infamous Col d'Izoard
(19.4 km at 5.9%) - then the climbs get progressively smaller with the
short and sharp Cat 2 Cote de Saint Apollinaire (6.7 km @ 7.4%) and the
Cat 3 Cote de la Rochette (3.9 km @ 6.7%).  There is about a 10 descent
into Gap.  After the fireworks of today's stage, it will be interesting
to see who has the legs to jump away.  If a rider could jump away on the
Col d'Izoard, it would be a long, long way to the finish.  But, if the
right rider were to get away, it could put the pressure on the QuickStep
team of KoM jersey wearing Richard Virenque.  Of course, that sort of
stage will appeal his to teammate Paolo Bettini, as well as one of the
animators of L'Alp d'Huez, Vinokourov.  But, with his proximity to the
race lead, he probably will kept on a rather short tether.


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