Armstrong wins 19th stage time trial
Barring illness or injury, Texan will win his fourth straight Tour when the race finishes Sunday.
By Suzanne Halliburton
COX NEWS SERVICE
Saturday, July 27, 2002
MACON, France — Sunday Lance Armstrong will celebrate his historic fourth straight Tour de France championship under the afternoon shadows of the Arc d' Triomphe on the cobblestones of the Champs Elysees.
But on Saturday, Armstrong erased any doubt about his strength as a grand champion, winning the final Tour individual time trial on a hot, dusty ride in Beaujalais country. It was his fourth stage win of this Tour and 15th of his career.
He beat runner-up Raimondas Rumsas of Lithuania by 53 seconds. Spain's Joseba Beloki, who was second overall to Armstrong coming into Saturday's stage, lost 2:11 to the champion. So did Colombia's Santiago Botero, who earlier in the Tour snapped Armstrong's time-trial winning steak at five straight.
"The differences were there," said Johan Bruyneel, director of Armstrong's U.S. Postal team. "Second place was 53 seconds behind. You see people who were close to him (coming into the stage), Botero was 2:11, that says how strong Lance was."
Botero beat Armstrong by 11 seconds at the first time trial, which was a half-mile longer but on a fairly flat route. That time trial was two stages before the mountains. And the Spanish riders began telling the media that Armstrong had lost some of his skills in the time trial, perhaps the one aspect of their sport that cyclists take the most pride.
Armstrong also kept wondering what happened that day, knowing that he felt "uncomfortable" on the bike.
"It was important to do a good ride today, to do my best," said Armstrong, whose average speed was 29.1 miles an hour for the stage. "I wasn't totally convinced I could.
"I was disappointed in that first time trial. And then I kept reading "oh, he's lost his skills in the time trial.' But I wasn't out for any sort of vengeance."
Whether he was out for it or not, Armstrong certainly capped off his revenge Saturday against the Spanish riders for their earlier comments.
He will take an insurmountable 7:17 lead over Beloki into Sunday's final, largely ceremonial, stage from Melun to Paris. Spain's Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, who in the first 10 days of the Tour announced that he and the others had caught up to Armstrong, finished 1:42 behind Armstrong in Saturday's stage.
On Sunday, once the cyclists arrive in the famed City of Lights, which will be at about 8 a.m. Texas time, they will take 10 laps of roughly 3.5 miles each, around the Champs Elysees, Paris' famed boulevard. More than 100,000 people are expected to line that street to cheer on Armstrong, who will end the day one victory short of tying Miguel Indurain's Tour championship streak at five.
Armstrong will become the first American rider to win four Tours. Only two other riders — France's Jacques Anquetil and Belgium's Eddy Merckx — have won four straight Tours.
On Saturday, thousands lined the 31-mile route from Regnie-Durette to Macon. At every time check, the street was so crowded that Armstrong and others barely had enough room to get through.
One by one, the riders jetted down the starting ramp onto the course. Because Armstrong was No. 1 in the overall, he was the last of the 153 riders to start the stage.
Barring a crash, Armstrong's lead coming into Saturday's stage was too big for any rider realistically to challenge. But second place was up for grabs. And Rumsas, who at age 30 is riding in his first Tour, made a significant run for a higher spot on the podium.
The Lithuanian needed to make up 2:18 on Beloki to move from third to second. He was tops in the field after the first time check, which came at the top of a 900-foot climb, 17 seconds over Armstrong. But the handlebars on Rumsas' bike came unscrewed at that point. He was able to tighten them, but only at an odd, lopsided angle. He then lost time to Armstrong at each of the three remaining check points and could only maintain his initial 1:18 advantage over Beloki.
Time trial bikes have two sets of handlebar. One set is used for turns, to climb, start and stop. The other set is needed to steer the bike when the riders are in an aerodynamic tuck position on the straighter sections of the course.
Rumsas estimated that he lost roughly 30 seconds to Armstrong.
"The handlebars weren't an issue with Lance," Rumsas said. "Lance was too strong."
As Rumsas crossed the finish line, he had tears in his eyes, knowing that bad luck probably had kept him from overtaking Beloki, who will finish 1 minute ahead in the overall standings.
Armstrong will travel with the rest of the peloton via high-speed train to Melun this morning. His family will join him in Paris for what likely will be a very American affair |
