Team discovers win
CARCASSONNE, France – If Lance Armstrong drops in on the Tour de France as expected next week, he’ll have something to celebrate.
His Discovery Channel squad, struggling at its first Tour without the seven-time champion, had its first stage winner on Friday, in young Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych. U.S. rider Floyd Landis kept the overall lead.
The now-retired Armstrong, a part owner of the Discovery squad, is expected at the race Tuesday or Wednesday, said team spokesman P.J. Rabice. Given the struggles they’ve faced, his ex-teammates could probably do with his advice and help.
Discovery came to the Tour with several riders touted as possible contenders to pick up where Armstrong left off. George Hincapie, who rode with the Texan on all seven of his wins, got the team off to a quick start by placing second in the opening short time trial and by taking the overall race lead the next day.
But it was all downhill from there. Discovery flunked the first big test of the Tour, failing to place any riders in the top 15 in the first long time trial last weekend. Hopes of a rebound seemed all but dashed when Hincapie and other Discovery riders melted on the hardest day in the Pyrenees on Thursday.
What a difference a day makes.
Popovych’s stylish win – he rode alone to the finish in the medieval walled city of Carcassonne – could not have come at a better time, especially since Discovery had just lost two riders who dropped out of the Tour with injuries earlier in the day.
“Emergency! We were just desperate,” said Discovery’s 40-year-old veteran Russian rider, Viatceslav Ekimov.
Stage 12 took the Tour out of the Pyrenees. The sun was scorching, the terrain still tricky, with one moderately hard climb early on and other hills after that. Several groups of riders, looking to triumph on the French national holiday of Bastille Day, tried to ride off ahead of the main pack of riders, only to be reeled in.
But Popovych and three other riders from rival teams succeeded where the others failed. As Carcassonne approached, with their lead over the main pack at more than 4 minutes, it became clear that one of them would be emerge as the winner.
Popovych made certain it would be him by shaking off his fellow riders with repeated bursts of speed on the city’s outskirts.
He sped over the last mile and a quarter alone and, as he crossed the line, repeatedly made the sign of the cross on his chest.
Landis and contenders right behind him in the overall standings finished in a group together, 4:25 back, so the time gaps between them remained unchanged.
Landis is still 8 seconds ahead of Cyril Dessel, an unheralded Frenchman.