[Tour 2005]Stage 20 - St. Etienne Time Trial

[race-report@cyclofiend.com]

Stage 20 - Individual Time Trial - St. Etienne 55.5 km
As Lance said in his after-stage interview yesterday, it's never flat.
Beyond that, it sure isn't straight, and it's one tough technical route
with climbs, twists, roundabouts and traffic furniture. It's also the
last time trial which Lance Armstrong will race. Motivated? Ya think?
But, other riders have a almost everything on the line as well, as the
places from 3rd to 10th are all within striking distance. You can be
sure that no one stayed up late last night partying...

We're watching the top 17 riders getting ready to roll - CSC's Bobby
Julich rolls away from the start house. Either he's developed a tension
hump or he's one of the few pro riders who uses a Camelback hydration
system. He's also still turning that eliptical chainring.

Three minutes later, George Hincapie hits the gas out of the start
house. The powerful rider gets immediately up to speed in the full sun.

Best time on the road has come from Sebastian Lang of Gerolsteiner at
1:15:33. No one particularly believes this will hold up.

Spotted Michael Rasmussen has a gagle of press and fans watching him
warm up on a trainer.

Vladimir Karpets of Illes Balears huffles his ungainly but incredibly
effective Time Trial style up to the line, nicking a good three quarters
of a minute with a new best time of 1:14:51

The White Jersey of Yaroslav Popovych rolls out into the suburbs of St.
Etienne, moves his way onto the first climbs and confusing curves of the
route.

Jorg Jaksche of Liberty Seguros wobbles over his bike as he heads
uphill. He's moving well, but the pain must be deep in his bones at this
stage of the race.

Chris Horner, the American riding for Saunier Duval, moves thorugh the
time check in 5th place, looking great as he catches his four minute man
- Pietro Caucchioli. He actually seems to be smiling.

Julich zips through 20 odd seconds ahead of the best time at 17 km.
Hincapie is just a few seconds behind him, now with the second best time
at that point.

The cameras find John Kerry in the crowd and wrangle an interview out of
him. Despite managing to keep the interveiw going for longer than your
average politician, he does heap accolades upon everyone from OLN
through Bob Roll. As he continues to expound, a frame within the frame
finds Lance Armstrong warming up, his twin daughters and son watching
dad get ready for work.

Phonak rider Floyd Landis has hit the first climb out on the course. His
saddle position is quite cringe-inducing, as he definitely uses the
skinny bits as he's punching over a massive gear.

The big pink form of Jan Ullrich blots out the sun, as he crosses
himself and sits with a cleanly shaved cheek and chin. Not that he had a
mountain man look before, but riders will often not shave on the day of
a time trial. I dunno, maybe it's a European thing.

Chris Horner continues smiling as he heads to the line 1:16:31 - 8th
best place. This rider has finished out this Tour in excellent form.

Back in the starthouse, Michael Rasmussen ahs a weird and haunted look
about him, as he fidgets and dinks around with his shoes. He's one of
the few riders not to wear any glasses. He only has about 2:45 of
padding on this day, as Big Jan looks frighteningly strong out on the
coruse.

Sastre hits the climb 58:35, 26 seconds faster than Karpets at that point

Rasmussen is down! Swooping around a roundabout, he suddenly unclips his
right foot as though he's going to tripod it, but he slides for a second
or two and hops back onto his bike. He's lost a patch on his mid right
thigh. Slow motion shows that his front wheel slid out just before he
felt it go. He's pushed away on his machine and regains his cadence, but
that sure isn't the way to start your effort.

Julich has moved 45 seconds better than Sastre - the CSC boys are
tearing up the course, feeding back a series of "carrots" for Ivan Basso
to aim for.

Now, Lance Armstrong sits in the starthouse. He looks focused, ready and
leaps away strongly. He swings up into his high cadence and

Word comes back that Hincapie again holds the second best time behind
Julich. Unfortunately, a dearth of cameras makes this a great moment in
radio. Landis has slotted in at ht 17k time check only 5 seconds behind
Julich.

Vinokourov knocks a few seconds off of Julich's 17 km time. The T-Mobile
rider has quietly scooted out on the course.

Julich at the top at 58:02 at the Col de Gachet time check, another best
time on the course.

Armstrong's bike literally disappears when the camera swings around
behind him. He's riding the Trek TTX carbon bicycle which was developed
for his final tour, and unlike Ullrich and Rasmussen, he has decided not
to run a full disk rear wheel.

Hincapie has slid back a touch, about 40 seconds at the top of the big
climb. Cadel Evans seems to be having a good day, as his time checks put
him well within the mix.

Ullrich has pulled back 1:12 on Rasmussen, well before the midpoint of
the course.

Sastre shows up at the finish, but, he finds a little too much drag in
the system, and fades 5 seconds behind Karpets, losing what was a 30
second lead at 5 km to go.

Through the magic of modern technology, we get a time check that shows
Ullrich has crept within 52 seconds of Rasmussen. Thank goodness for
timing transponders...

Leipheimer passes through 17 km into 9th place, perhaps pacing himself a
little differently on this tricky course.

Basso rides uphill through a parting mass of humanity. He's running full
throttle and climbing cleanly.

But, Ullrich has clearly thrown down the gauntlet, the new best time at
17 km with 25:57. He's squeezed down the Rasmussen gap to 27 seconds.
Ullrich rides like a serious predator, shark-like with his open mouth.
He's sending up a rooster tail of pavement and hacking the deficit down
to 11 seconds with just under 40 km to go.

Julich flies around the final turns on the course and crosses the line
in 1:13:19! He's strongly accellerated over the last kilometers, putting
himself a minute and a half ahead of Karpets.

Basso - 17 seconds faster than Ullrich at 17 km - 25:40. Flames show
around his ankles.

Now Armstrong heads up toward the 17 km check point, but it looks like
Basso's time will hold - Armstrong goes under 7 seconds slower than Basso.

Hincapie notches in 1:14:11 which has him in a provisional 2nd place for
the stage. Rasmussen now trails Ullrich on the roadway by 2 seconds.

No, wait, it gets worse for Rasmussen - he has a wheel change. He has a
bike change. He has a problem with the changed bike. Rasmussen hails his
team car up and says something to them. Basso flew past him at the first
catastrophe of the second act, and has solidly disappeared up the
roadway. Rasmussen now looks like he's stuck on a huge gear as he tries
to buck up hill.

A replay shares Armstrong's chamois-adjusting technique, in slow motion.

Rasmussen gets yet another bike change. Sometimes, it's just better to
hit the snooze bar and roll over...

Landis now nicks the second best time check at the Col de la Gachet.

Estimated times are extrapolating from 17 km check, which places Basso
in first and Armstrong in second. Of course, if you could do it that
way, there's no point in racing...

Vinokourov cracks off the best time at 57:33 - 17 seconds fast than
Julich. He's riding an exceptional TT today.

We see Ullrich on the course negotiating a blind 180 degree turn, and he
comes around it like he's riding sketchy singletrack. He seems to have a
bit of trouble regaining his cadence, but his low cadence and huge power
can be deceptive.

Popovych comes through at 1:14:5...we cut away - as Rasmussen has
another meltdown, overshoots a turn and goes flying into the roadside
underbrush. Not the way you want to seize the attention of the cameras.

Basso seems a touch tentative on the narrow descent through the town -
he changes - and it shows on the clock, as he's dropped 30 secondsd
behind Ullrich at the second time check. Ullrich is beginning to
challenge Basso's position on the podium, now sits only 2:43 behind the
CSC rider on the roadway.

Armstrong has gone 19 seconds faster than Ullrich at the super-secret
35Km time check.

Ullrich looks like a big, pink, bike riding machine as he punches
through 37 faster than Vinokourov over the big climb checkpoint at 40.5 km.

Landis shows every vein in his legs as he hunches over his arms, all
nose and chin, but runs through the line at 1:13:48, moving Hincapie
down to 3rd.

Armstrong has sighted Rasmussen, and ramps up the effort to streak up on
him like a club rider. The 6 minute gap at the start now down to zero.
Rasmussen visibly deflates for a pedal stroke or two, then regains what
remains of his composure and hefts out of the saddle again in his
climbing style. One of the cranial-anal inversion suffering fans throws
a bottle's worth of water at Armstrong on the climb. It didn't look like
he meant it to help. It also gets on the camera lens...

Vinokourov struts out a 1:13:02, hanging onto his 17 second lead which
all took place on the climb of the Col de la Gachet. An excellent effort
which puts him in provisional first place.

Basso no longer looks fluid as he works to defeat the climb that Ullrich
has put behind him. He's climbing, of course, but he's got to be
painfully aware that his lead has lessened to 2:24 over Ullrich. Basso
comes into view over the Col - 57:41 - only the third best time. He's
all teeth and goo, trying to suck in any air that can be found.

Evans rolls through at 1:13:52 - a provisional 4th place before the
monsters come home to roost.

Armstrong may just want this stage - he's come through the Col de Gachet
32 seconds ahead of Ullrich. The power downhill section remains, and
Lance tucks into the swooping turns in what looks like it could be
Sonoma County. He slows for nothing, angular or animate object, and we
begin to see a color shift in his jersey, just like in the sci-fi films
when spaceships go to warp speed.

Basso continues to suffer from his ealy efforts, though he seems to have
regained a bit of confidence in his descending. Ullrich looks like he's
not even sweating - clearly a mirage caused by the resolution on the
tape - but he's punishing the hardware and you can hear audible creaks
from the frame as carbon and aluminum bits fly into space, compressed
beyond recognition. Now the fixed cameras begin to pick him up as he
hammers to the finish - 1:12:09 - best time on the course so far!

Armstrong continues pulsing out a high cadence, his upper body barely
moving. He doesn't seem to be moving all that fast until you get a
slight side angle, where you see fans and buildings whisking past him.
He pops out to the saddle to accellerate again at the 5 km to go banner,
with a full 35 seconds ahead of Ullrich.

Basso sees angels dancing on his wrists and he passes under the 3 km to
go banner. All he wants is that finish, and it must seem to be forever
moving away from him.

Rasmussen continues to fall like a pachinko ball, now 7:18 behind the
best time, and his day is far from over.

Basso gains blessed relief and crosses the line - he's found some extra
calories hidden somewhere and comes in at 1:13:40, 1:31 behind Ullrich,
leaving him on the podium in second place.

The somewhat incomplete parade follows Armstrong to the line - some
vehicles must remain back with Rasmussen - and he ticks over that
beautiful pedaling style to finish 23 seconds in front of Ullrich on the
day - best time on the stage at 1:11:46 - clearly the downhill power
sections of the course did favor Jan's big diesel engine, but one has to
ride the whole danged course, eh?

Someone who wishes he didn't have to - our man Michael Rasmussen - looks
like he's been mugged and his dogs have left him. He crosses the line at
1:19:33, 76th position overall, just about 7:47 slower than Armstrong. A
quick calculation means that drops him down to 7th place in the GC. That
was a bad day at work.


Stage 20 -
1 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 1:11:46
2 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +:23
3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +1:16
4 - Bobby Julich - CSC - +1:33
5 - Ivan Baso - CSC - +1:54
6 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +2:02
7 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - +2:06
8 - George Hincapie - Discovery - +2:25
9 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Balears - +2:51
10 - Vladimir Karpets - Illes Balears - +3:05

GC -
MJ - Lance Armstrong - 82:34:05
2 - Ivan Basso - +4:42
3 - Jan Ullrich - +6:21
4 - Francisco Mancebo - +9:59
5 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +11:25
6 - Alexandre Vinokourov - +11:27
7 - Michael Rasmussen - +11:33
8 - Cadel Evans - +11:55
9 - Floyd Landis - +12:44
10 - Oscar Pereiro - +16:04


Tomorrow - Final Stage - Parade into Paris
Corbeil - Essonnes - Paris - 144km
Champagne will flow and riders will goof around, swapping bikes and
mugging for the camera. Sadly, rain is forecast for the day, but even a
blizzard would do nothing to reduce the enthusiasm for this most unique
of Tour events - barring the obscenely odd, Lance Armstrong will win an
unprecedented Tour de France.


-- 

Galleries for your bicycle - at Cyclofiend.com

Current Classics Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cc
Cyclocross Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/cx
Single Speed Bicycle Photo Gallery - http://www.cyclofiend.com/ssg

Add your bicycle to the Galleries!
http://www.cyclofiend.com/guidelines


----------------------------------------------

You are receiving this email from the Tour-Junkie at Cyclofiend.
http://www.cyclofiend.com

If you are a new subscriber and want to see earlier reports, they are
archived here:
http://lists.cyclofiend.com/pipermail/race-report/2005-July/thread.html

To subscribe, unsubscribe or to change any of your information, please
visit the "Race-Report" info page:
http://lists.cyclofiend.com/mailman/listinfo/race-report

All rights reserved - copyright by Jim Edgar 2005

Permission granted to circulate this publication via manual forwarding
by email to friends, providing that the text is forwarded in its
entirety and no fees are charged.

Questions or comments can be sent to this email address, or to
editor@cyclofiend.com