jersey holders

Lance ARMSTRONG

Thor HUSHOVD

Mickael RASMUSSEN

Yaroslav POPOVYCH

THE RACE LIVE

The film of the stage

A Beautiful Conclusion To A Dominant Career

There’s nothing left for Lance Armstrong to do at the Tour de France. He’s done it all but this year’s race would have seemed a little incomplete had he not won a stage on his own. Tomorrow will be the American’s last day as a professional cyclist and he’ll stand on the podium at the Champs Elysees as the only man to have won the race seven times. But today he had some business to attend to. In the race of truth he had to prove exactly why he’s The Boss of the Bunch. That’s exactly what he did.
Favorites have been known to fail but since 1999 Armstrong has collected at least one stage victory per year. Today there was no option for him to offer any gifts. He needed to get from point-A to point-B as fast as possible to capture a victory which, until now had eluded him all year. Okay, he teamed up with his Discovery Channel posse in stage four to win the team time trial. That was a collective celebration for the well-drilled unit which has controlled the racing for three weeks this July.
After 55.5km Lance got to stand on the podium alone to celebrate what is likely to be the last stage win of his life. But favorites have also been known to want more; and maybe – just maybe – he’ll conclude his career with an attack on the streets of Paris in the final stage. That would be a dream scenario but it’s not necessary.
“Bernard Hinault won on the Champs Elysees in 1979,” said the Tour’s historian Jacques Augendre on the eve of today’s time trial. “Of course it would be a beautiful way for Armstrong to end his racing days. He’s a complete rider and I’m sure he would be tempted but the final day is one for the sprinters. Armstrong doesn’t need to take a risk and get involved in the quest for line honors.”
Lance didn’t “need” to win today either. But it was right that he did. Jan Ullrich wanted the victory perhaps even more than his nemesis who has won six of the final time trials during his seven-year reign (only losing to a dubious David Millar in the year of the Tour’s centenary). The German was superb again today, but he could not get close to the American. At every check but the last, Lance increased his advantage on the rider who elevated himself from fourth overall to third.
Unless he contradicts Augendre and wins the stage in Paris, Armstrong will end his riding days with 25 stage victories in the Tour. Today’s was not the most beautiful but it was still stunning to watch. He’s a picture of perfection in the time trial. He takes risks but not too many. He spins his legs at a rapid pace but always has more power in reserve. He allows his rivals to get near him, but never ahead. And poor Jan will no longer get the opportunity to say that he beat Armstrong in the race of truth. For the second successive year, the 1997 champion will not even get the chance to be the second-best rider in the race. That honor goes to Ivan Basso who was the only rider capable of eclipsing Armstrong’s time at any of the four intermediate checks.
The Italian slowed towards the end of the time trial and finished the stage in fifth, but he is one minute and 41 seconds ahead of Ullrich in the general classification with one day to go.
The race is never over until the final line is crossed. But today was when the final positions in the top 10 were going to be settled. Mickael Rasmussen was expected to lose a lot but several severe faux-pas saw him drop from third overall to seventh.
The Dane has prize he came to the Tour to win. The King of the Mountains crown is his but he also had a place on the podium until the time trial around Saint-Etienne. His lead was always within reach of Ullrich, the rider who won the time trial on the same course as today’s back in the year of his overall victory. But Rasmussen failed to minimize his losses. And he did so in dramatic fashion.
He was already losing time to his main rivals before a crash on a roundabout slowed him down. Mechanical failures then haunted him over the undulating route. Rasmussen was forced to change his bike on several occasions and the wind was truly knocked out of his sails. He needed a touch of luck to save him from slipping out of the top five, but it didn’t come his way. Instead of rolling safely through to the finish, Rasmussen crashed again and eventually limped home in 77th place almost eight minutes behind Armstrong.
Rasmussen nor any of the other riders in the peloton were able to make a dent on Armstrong’s domination. That’s why the Texan will arrive in Paris with the option of winning a 26th stage… and his second race in 2005. Of course, the hordes of Americans who flock to the French capital would love to see two victories in the one day – the stage and the overall title – but as Augendre reminds us, there’s no need for the risk of ruining a beautiful conclusion to a dominant career.

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