Sunday's stage with 6 rated climbs, 4 of them category 1, will crush the lesser riders.
to a lazy breakfast without the need to inhale a kilo's worth of pasta, Colombian Victor Hugo Pena of the U.S.
Some reports had erroneously said that this climb is new to the Tour) started to get a bit steep the peloton tossed a slew of riders. When Tyler Hamilton took off on his epic (I won't even try to come up with adjectives that properly describe what he did, it's beyond me) break yesterday, I expected the Euskaltel team to defend the 4th and 5th placings of Zubeldia and Mayo with robust vigor. Since their goal is Paris (and Postal DS Bruyneel has ice water in his veins), I am sure they will not waste any energy that does not bring them closer to that goal. It will probably be hot and windy. This is going to be an epic stage.Armstrong has clawed his way back to Ullrich. The course favors a complete bike rider. It was hard to believe that the rest of the sprinters were really going as fast as they could. They may have only three riders left in the Tour. It will be interesting to see if US Postal can pull of the tactical trifecta. ascent of the Bagarguy, followed by Burdincurutcheta. They are working hard together against the lone man with the broken collarbone. Handsome Dan Di Luca has abandoned, also Pietro Caucchioli of Alessio is out.Kilometer 157.
(After the race note: well, maybe later...)But now Ullrich has made it clear in his rest day interviews that he considers the remaining Tour stages, all of them, ripe for attack.
The peloton was 1min 20seconds back behind the 7 chasers.Flecha cruised in alone, pretending to shoot a mock arrow into the air.The rest of the breakaway splintered into indivdual attacks with Da Cruz negating many of them. Tyler currently has about 5min 18sec lead on the Yellow Jersey group.The Orange Basque boys seem to have been content to call this a Tour. The most illustrious of the three Grand Tours, the Tour de France … Telekom's Botero is sitting 2nd, down 1min 33sec.Jan Ullrich is on the course. They have dropped Parra.7 kilometers to go. Virenque took the bunch sprint at the summit for the remaining Climber's points. The roll-call of Tour de France winners contains the names of many of the world’s best bike riders through time. I still say it's a dead heat.Hamilton vs. Vinokourov: Can Tyler, currently in 6th place, make it to the podium? Also we have cooler, wetter weather, which is also greatly in Armstrong's favor. If true (and it probably is), that will make them more desperate in the Pyrenees. was over half a century ago. At the end of the year, he was elected as the "sports person of the year" in Germany.
They could relax and let Postal work to contain the damage before (probably and if necessary) hitting them again with more attacks.Things settled out after the descent with about 60 kilometers and 2 rated climbs to go. Some redemption for the italian after his pre-Tour boasts.
Tyler Hamilton is there. said, "There's no doubt that Triki [Beltran] went too hard at the base of the On the flats, the amount of energy needed to push the bike down the road is very close to the same for both riders. Cooke and McEwen are now tied at 182 points each and Zabel has 167.
From his interviews we know that he given every possibility his consideration.
He may be feeling better (or less bad?). So I had to go across [to Beloki] and you always pay a little bit for those Tour, Aussies Baden Cooke and Robbie McEwen will be renewing their ding-dong
He has never had less than a 5-minute lead going into the final time trial before, either. The 3 intermediate sprints will be raw meat for the sprinters looking for time bonuses to snag the Yellow Jersey from McGee.
Here's my rant: Before the start of the Tour many of the challengers to Armstrong's Tour supremacy noted that the only way to beat Lance was to put his team under stress and do all that's possible to separate him from his team. There are some good sprinters there and the others won't want to decide the outcome in a gallop. Armstrong will want to shore up his lead and the others will be hoping to minimize their losses.
Therefore, Armstrong's win is a particularly good, clean win with no second-guessing. All great Tour riders, including Armstrong, say that luck plays an important part in Tour success. "I'm not as strong as Armstong with his powerful Postal team, Beloki with ONCE, Vinokourov with Telekom and Sastre & Hamilton with CSC have some horsepower to call upon. The 2003 Tour represented the 100th anniversary of the Tour de France. The gap was down to 3min 32sec.15 km to go: The 8 were still together and the gap was down to 1min 56sec. At each check point he lengthened his lead over Armstrong. CSC director Riis hands Tyler a bottle, shouting encouragement, telling him that he looks good. give it a shot, but with four years of experience behind them, USPS-Berry Floor
When the 1996 Tour de France winner hired Tyler Hamilton, nay-sayers chuckled. Behind them, in a replay of their 2002 Tour, the ONCE pretenders lurked in their usual position. Ullrich just wasn't going fast enough. As the prospectus says, "past performance is no guarantee of future performance."
11 kilometers to go. Armstrong can not stay with him There is a gap. On a flat road that means a faster rider. He had pulled 7 seconds ahead and went down.
Well, it's been a week. Armstrong knows that means attack.
if Armstrong has more bad days at the Centenary Tour, the tough Texan could There remains the Green Sprinter's Jersey. So where are we?