Armstrong foils attack
AX-3 DOMAINES, France – This time he did it alone. Lance Armstrong rode to the summit of this Pyrenees ski resort without a Discovery Team escort. He broke the endurance of Alexandre Vinokourov, Christophe Moreau, Andreas Kloeden, Floyd Landis, even climbing monster Mickael Rasmussen.
It took a little longer until Jan Ullrich was left behind and it wasn’t until the last few meters when Armstrong spurted ahead of Ivan Basso. With sweat dripping from his arms and legs and without a silver and blue-clad mate in sight, Armstrong finished second in Saturday’s 137-mile 14th stage of the Tour de France.
His overall lead grew from 38 seconds over Rasmussen to 1:41. Basso is third, 2:46 behind; Ullrich is fourth, 4:34 behind; Vinokourov fell back to ninth overall, 7:09 behind.
“Lance was strong,” Vinokourov said. “But we’ll keep attacking.”
Americans Levi Leipheimer and Landis moved up to fifth and sixth overall enhancing the possibility that two U.S. cyclists could be on the podium for the first time ever when the Tour finishes in Paris next Sunday.
A tearful Georg Totschnig became only the second Austrian in history to win a stage when he held off Armstrong and Basso and climbed the final summit in searing heat that had passed 95 degrees most of the afternoon. Totschnig won the stage in 5 hours, 43 minutes, 43 seconds, some 56 seconds ahead of Armstrong.
Last week, when Armstrong’s teammates lost contact with their 33-year-old leader, Armstrong said it would be a problem if the same thing happened again.
It happened again Saturday, with Discovery mountain specialist Manuel Beltran out of the race with a concussion, when T-Mobile made several attacks.
The final one came during the day’s steepest rise, a 9.4-mile climb up Port de Pailheres, when Vinokourov led T-Mobile on its final stab at Armstrong’s advantage. Soon Armstrong was the only Discovery Channel rider climbing the ascent.
“It’s scary when you see an entire team go to the front and ride as hard as they can,” Armstrong said. “Naturally you fear that situation. You either fight back or run away. I wasn’t going to run away and I was motivated to not be gotten down by the tactic. But they did a good job. If I was the director, I’d make the same call.”
Two years ago Armstrong struggled up this same climb in similar heat while suffering from dehydration. It was the closest he has come to losing during his six-year domination of the Tour.
“It was incredibly hot again,” Armstrong said. “It was a similar situation again with Jan and Ivan. I kept trying to remember my training day here six weeks ago because I felt better then.”
On the final climb, with Totschnig going alone to the finish, Armstrong, Basso and Ullrich rode together, each taking a turn at the front. Each called for the team car and grabbed water bottles both for drinking and for pouring over their heads, chests and legs.
Basso seemed to ride with a smile on his face. Ullrich was pulling in air through clenched teeth while Armstrong set his mouth in a straight, hard line.
With Armstrong setting the pace, Ullrich finally fell back. Whenever Basso would try to put distance between himself and Armstrong, Armstrong would pull even. Finally, in the last couple of kilometers, Armstrong stood up and pushed hard.
“It’s impossible to attack Armstrong. He’s too strong, and once again, he didn’t show any signs of weakness,” said Basso.
The consensus is that today’s 127.7-mile stage from Lezat-sur-Leze to Saint-Lary-Soulan that has five rated climbs, including the toughest “hors categorie” ascent of 6 miles at an 8.3 percent grade to the finish line, is the most difficult day of this 21-stage race.
“We’re going to have a hard time recovering from today,” Armstrong said. “If it’s this hot tomorrow, a lot of guys will be going home.”