This event probably won't get much play in the American press, but here in Europe it will be Tour de France 24/7 coverage for the next week or so.
Armstrong rides into historyBy OLIVER MOORE
Saturday, July 2, 2005 Updated at 12:44 AM EDT
theglobeandmail.com
Tour de France defending champion Lance Armstrong has the option of wearing the race-leader's yellow jersey as the epic race starts today. But he probably won't.
In past years the star cyclist has chosen not to wear the symbolic jersey on the first day, preferring to win the right to it farther down the road.
If past performance is an indicator — and his competitors are hoping it is not — Armstrong will don the yellow jersey in the mountains and wear it to Paris, his seventh successive victory in the French cycling classic.
Armstrong has said that he will retire after this Tour, win or lose. He's favoured to win again, a testament to his incredible drive and ability. He dedicates his whole year's effort to winning the Tour and is, doctors say, physiologically gifted.
But his challengers are hoping his age, 33, is finally catching up with him.
For most top racers, diminishing physical abilities outweigh increased tactical skills some time in their early- to mid-30s.
“The opposition's a little stronger and he's a little older,” said John Wilcockson, editorial director for VeloNews and a long-time Tour watcher.
But Armstrong has proved the pundits wrong before.
The fireworks could start right away.
Today's 19-kilometre stage is longer than usual and powerful riders could be able to make significant time on their rivals.
In a three-week race where every second counts — American Greg LeMond beat Frenchman Laurent Fignon by a mere eight seconds in 1989 and Armstrong himself won by just 61 seconds two years ago — dominant performances from would-be contenders can be expected.
The challengers are many. Perennial runner-up Jan Ullrich wants to use his last chance to beat Armstrong, Ivan Basso hopes to show that he can perform as well in the time trials as he does in the big mountains and many others, who have fallen short in the past, want to prove their talent.
No one will give Armstrong an easy run over the gruelling 3,607-kilometre road.
Wilcockson, speaking this week before heading to France, said that he thought Armstrong would prevail again.
“His own personal drive is second to none. Ullrich never had that drive,” said the author of several cycling books, including one on Armstrong's 2004 victory. “The guy has got so much knowledge and experience about how to race the Tour.”
Armstrong is also backed by a very powerful team, Discovery Channel, and has managed to keep motivated through cancer, recovery, divorce and celebrity.
“That's the biggest thing that hinders riders as they get older, they lose the motivation. He still has that a lot, he's super-competitive,” said Michael Barry, a Canadian member of the Discovery Channel team.
“He's a very competitive person and really has fire in his belly and loves riding his bike,” Barry said from his home in Spain. “There are cyclists who do it because they love doing it and there are others who do it because it's a job. Obviously Lance doesn't need the money.”
Barry, a 29-year-old veteran, who will be starting the Tour of Austria on Monday instead of racing the Tour de France, said that support riders on the road with Armstrong will dedicate their race to his victory. They will protect him from crashes, shield him from the wind and help him keep gas in the tank for the last stretches of key stages.
“The leader needs to use as little energy as possible,” said Barry, who has raced in the three-week tours of Spain and Italy.
Wilcockson said that Armstrong's personal coach, Chris Carmichael, has pioneered training procedures that prepare racers specifically for the rigours of the Tour.
“All of his training, preparation, is geared towards putting out maximum effort at the end of the stages,” he said.
On the hardest stages, racers will ride over several mountains at a pace that most recreational cyclists couldn't maintain for even a few kilometres and speed up to climb the last mountain of the day. And then, as the finish line approaches, Armstrong and his competitors will have to call on every last bit of power to pick the pace up even further.
The ability of Armstrong, a good all-around cyclist, to surge away in the mountains has fascinated fans since he came back from cancer. He famously faked illness during a mountain stage of the 2001 Tour, only to crush Ullrich on l'Alpe d'Huez, the punishing last climb of the day. And the American shocked Italian fans by humbling climbing ace Marco Pantani on a tough stage up Mont Ventoux in 2000.
Most commentators agree that his ability comes from a combination of race savvy, intense training and abnormal physiology.
The last is the most striking. Armstrong is said to have a more powerful heart and lungs than most people. He produces a below-average amount of lactic acid and has extra-long femurs that allow him to apply more force to the pedals. He starts the Tour with a body-fat level of only about 4 or 5 per cent.
Although rumours have circulated for years about Armstrong's physiology — the most common being that he came back from cancer treatment leaner and stronger — a scientist who has studied Armstrong for years recently dismissed the notion that he was simply born with a lucky body.
Edward Coyle, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, argues that Armstrong is great because he trains so hard. Otherwise, he said, any decent recreational athlete could compete against him.
“There's no doubt that Armstrong started with a strong genetic makeup, but he maximized his abilities and got where his is through dedication and hard training,” Coyle said.
Not only phenomenally driven, Armstrong has for years dedicated his racing season solely to the Tour.
“He's pioneered a specific type of training geared specifically at winning the Tour,” Wilcockson said. “Lance has just devoted himself since '99, since he came back to the sport, just to winning the Tour de France. Most other riders don't have that luxury.”
Several top teams are now following that lead, using other races to prepare for the Tour instead of riding them competitively. It's a far cry from the days of Eddy Merckx, the Belgian star nicknamed The Cannibal because he wanted to beat everyone, every time. He won a total of 445 road races in his 13-year career.
But no one has yet honed the system as well as Armstrong has. Basso's CSC team last year allowed some riders to try their luck on individual stages, taking them away from their team leader's overall quest. And while Ullrich is ostensibly leader of the T-Mobile team, support rider Alexandre Vinokourov has said he could try for victory if Ullrich doesn't show up properly prepared.
By contrast, the Discovery Channel team will be entirely focused on Armstrong's victory.
“Each Tour they show up with an incredibly strong team,” Barry said, noting that although several of the support riders could place in the top 10 they aren't there for individual glory. |
