Armstrong Happy With His Tour

Thirty-sixth place. It may not seem like much, especially when the guy who finished 35 places ahead of you, your idol, wins the Tour de France for a record fifth straight time.

But American Lance Armstrong was in an expansive mood after Sunday’s finish, having fulfilled two of his three goals: He finished and he won a daily stage. The third was to reach the top 15.

That was the lowest-rated goal anyway and so Amstrong was happy to be signing autographs, posing for pictures with fans and accepting congratulations for his stage victory last Friday, for finishing the Tour for the first time in three rides and for dealing so admirably with the death of Motorola teammate, Fabio Casartelli, in a crash in the Pyrenees.

Life is a learning experience, agreed, and the 23-year-old Armstrong said he had learned a lot during the last three weeks about professional bicycle racing and about life itself.

“In cycling, I learned what it’s like to do a three-week race,” he explained. “Hard, very hard. But the last few days I felt so good that I think I’m coming out of this race in a good way.

“The race did a lot for me in terms of riding three weeks. People say once you do a big Tour, then you’re a different rider. It changes you. I do expect it to give me some strength. I’m certainly coming out of the race healthy.

Certainly, I learned more about life and death in this Tour than I learned about bike racing,” he said, discussing Casartelli’s death. “I never had to deal with the death of a family member, a friend, a teammate, ever before… . And to have it happen in the Tour de France, it was very difficult.”

He handled it well, a friend pointed out, citing the way Armstrong pointed to the sky at the end of the stage victory that Armstrong said was dedicated to Casartelli.

That was a special day. Those weren’t my legs. Because they were way too good. They were so good.

“The week before that I was physically so tired and the legs that day, they showed up, the breakaway showed up and that attack I made - in the last 25 kilometers (15 miles) to go 55 to 60 kilometers an hour on a false-flat uphill.

“Come on,” Armstrong continued, “I’ve never in my life ridden a bike that fast. Those were very special kilometers there.

“It’s hard to explain; it’s unexplainable. .. After a long pause, Armstrong said, “… Boy, I was so strong.”