Thank you Oma & Brink for reading and responding to these posts. I have to say I am a great admirer of Lance Armstrong. Not simply because of his athletic ability, but because he was diagnosed with testicular cancer sometime ago. He has overcome that trauma, and become one of the greatest athletes to emerge from the USA.
As I pound this out, the result of the Tour de France is being decided right now on the road from Pornic to Nantes, a small distance of 29 miles.
Yesterdays stage was pretty uneventful apart from Jan Ullrich grabing 2 seconds off Lance Armstrong by coming in 2nd on an intermediate sprint, gaining 4 seconds, Lance chased him for 3rd, and gained 2 seconds.
So Ullrich goes into todays TT 1 min 5 secs behind Armstrong.
I have just picked up the results. The winner of the stage was a Brit David Miller in 54 mins 5 secs. A great ride. Tyler Hamilton was second 9 seconds slower. Lance Armstrong was 5 seconds behind Hamilton in 3rd. Ullrich was 4th, 11 seconds behind Armstrong. This gives Armstrong the lead in the race by 1 min 15 Seconds.
Tomorrow is the final stage into Paris, this is normally won by a sprinter, nobody will be allowed to ride away on a lone escape. The whole bunch will arrive on the Champs-Elysees en masse. Then race up and down the great boulevard before a frantic final sprint finish. This final stage is the one stage the sprinters want to win. Armstrong will stay clear of this scramble for first place on the stage. He will now win his 5th Tour de France. I will watch the highlights on TV tonight and post my take on todays ride later.
PS Miller's average speed was slightly over 32 mph. Wow!
|