[Le Tour 2003]2nd Race Day - You pay for the whole seat...

[Tour Reporter]

... But You'll Only Use THE EDGE!!!

Tour de France - 2nd Rest Day

How do you even begin to put words around the drama and tension that 
still hangs like dripping moss over this year's Centenary Tour de France?

Ullrich said after yesterday's stage that he had expected to lose as 
much as 2 minutes to Lance in the uphill finish.  Of course, one has to 
wonder how much time he would have indeed lost if Lance had not suffered 
the most dramatic and untimely Texas-style lassoing at the hands of a 
musette-wielding fan.

That cuts both ways, of course.  Looking back at the footage, Armstrong 
had clearly wanted to go right then: fairly low on the climb. 
Euskatel-Euskadi's Iban Mayo had made a strong move, which Lance 
countered. He had moved up into his "hydrofoil" position - dancing on 
the pedals and looking like he had reserves on reserves to burn for the 
effort of getting time over everyone.  Ullrich had increased his pace 
and moved a bit away from the rest of the bunch. But he was trying to 
cut down an increasing gap.  This was the Tour, and Lance was ready to 
go.  He clearly was ready to make the effort which would reap the most 
benefit.  When he went down, and suffered through a bobble before 
returning to the pack, he lost the ability to make the most effective 
use of the distance -- he simply had less roadway to burn up, and now 
has a least some level of concern about how much time he had gained.

It was at least 3 minutes and 45 seconds from the time Lance crashed 
until he made his second accelleration - how much further ahead would he 
have been?  We can only know what actually happened.

The end result is on the marquees throughout France - Lance holds only 
1:07 over Ullrich.  That's simply not enough of a time gap for anyone to 
say that this Tour de France is wrapped up.

Clearly, Armstrong has had some of his most difficult challanges, at the 
same time as he was having some of his worst days.  Any day that you 
lose somewhere past 13 pounds of water weight in about an hour, as he 
did on the first Individual Time Trial stage, it cannot rank well up 
there in the scheme of things.

The next day on the climbs of the Pyrenees, Ullrich sensed Lance's 
weakness and moved hard on terrain that seemed to favor him - an incline 
without steep pitches, where Ullrich could bring his huge dynamo of 
power to bear.  Even so, Lance cut down a gap that had reached more than 
30 seconds on the roadway to less than 7 by the time he crossed the 
line. Even while having an off day, Armstrong found something.

But by Stage 14, Lance began to look like... well, Lance.  He rode 
confidentally while Vinokourov tried to stake his claim for the Yellow 
Jersey.  After watching Ullrich and responding instantly to any 
pertinant accellerations, he stated that he "was feeling better" and 
would go better in the coming days.

That would be yesterday.  QED.

Some other odd little tidbits and newsbits -

Another of Lance's quotes was something to the effect that there were a 
number of strange things which have been happening this year - some of 
which he hadn't spoken about.  Hopefully, we'll hear what those things 
were once all is said and done.

Armstrong's climbing bike - an OCLV Trek with superlight tubing and even 
the weight-savings of a downtube front shifter - proved to have a 
cracked right chainstay after the full-force smack it received on the 
roadway of Luz Ardiden. The marketeers from Trek should be able to spin 
it as "the bike that was strong enough to carry Lance to a stage victory 
- even though it was broken..."  You heard it here first.

Raimondas Rumsas, who was third in last year's Tour, has been given a 
one-year suspension due to a positive drug test for EPO earlier this 
season.  The original recommendation had been for a four year ban - 
perhaps influenced by the end-of-Tour arrest of his wife, who had been 
carrying a whole bunch of - um - stuff for her mother, back in Lithuania.

Axel Merckx turned in his numbers in Stage 15, in addition to the riders 
mentioned in yesterday's post.

By far, the best technical innovation of this year's Tour is without 
question the use of light colored helmet straps so as not to show the 
crust of dried salt.

---
Looking Ahead -

With the upcoming time trial the day before everyone finishes in Paris, 
it will be interesting to see if Lance and the USPS gang can use their 
superior team to chisel some more time out of Ullrich.  If they could 
spring a couple riders before the steep climbs and narrow descents, and 
Lance could use his descending skills to lengthen an attack on the 
climb, it might deliver a bit more padding to the time.

Of course, that's a bit of risky move - the stage is 197 km long and the 
first Category 1 summit - Col du Soudet, 1540 meters - is at 67 km.  The 
second - Col Bagarguy, 1327 meters - is sandwiched between two Cat 3 
climbs at around 110 kkm.  After that, the riders head out to the coast 
city of Bayonne for at least 60 km.  On paper it's a steady drop, but 
there may be enough topography for a bunch to keep away.

But, Thursday and Friday are dead flat, sprinter-favoring jaunts (which 
_would_ give Lance plenty of time to recover from a maximum effort on 
tomorrow's stage...).

The Saturday Time Trial is just shy of 50 km, and may be the point at 
which Greg Lemond's Tour time trial speed record of 54.545 kph (33.892 
mph).  The course heads almost dead east, and could pick up a west wind 
to push everyone along. It's hard to bet who it will favor, but it's 
going to come down to power.

In the meantime, there's plenty of racing to go. Enjoy the edge of your 
seat.

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