Armstrong wins fourth straight Tour
Texan finishes in main pack as it takes its final laps on the Champs-Elysees.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
austin360.com
Sunday, July 28, 2002
PARIS (AP) — Lance Armstrong won his fourth straight Tour de France on Sunday, claiming one of his biggest victories in the grueling three-week event.
The Texan crossed the finish line on the Champs-Elysees in the bright yellow leader's jersey he has worn since taking control of the race 10 days ago.
The 30-year-old cancer survivor moved within one of the Tour record of five titles.
Armstrong finished in the main pack of riders as they completed the 20th stage from Melun, outside Paris, to the tree-lined Champs-Elysees. Thousands of fans watched, many waving U.S. flags.
Armstrong's final winning margin over second-place Joseba Beloki of Spain was 7 minutes, 17 seconds.
It was Armstrong's second-biggest victory. He beat Alex Zuelle by 7:37 in 1999.
Armstrong's tranquil ride to the finish mirrored the rest of the race, in which neither rivals nor the demanding course of 2,032 miles seemed to test him.
He seized the lead in the first mountain leg at La Mongie in the Pyrenees, and nearly doubled it by sprinting up a tough climb to the Plateau de Beille in the next day's 12th stage.
On the formidable Mont Ventoux in the southern Provence region, he placed third but took a comfortable lead of 4:21 by finishing nearly 2 minutes in front of Beloki.
"Armstrong has shown he has the blood of champions flowing through his veins," the head of Beloki's team, Manolo Saiz, said after the Ventoux stage.
"He is much stronger than us, we see it day after day."
It was Armstrong's fifth unsuccessful attempt at winning on the Ventoux, but what mattered was stretching his race lead, rather than taking spectacular — and tiring — stage victories.
"The smart thing to do is to ride conservative now," the U.S. Postal Service rider said as he headed to the Alps. "This is not a race to win by as many seconds or minutes as possible, it's a race just to win. So there's no need to be aggressive."
That didn't stop from him adding 45 seconds in the last three mountain stages and winning the final time trial Saturday by nearly a minute.
"I can remember in 1999 being so nervous every day and worried that I would lose the race in an instant," Armstrong said Saturday. "I don't have those fears any more." |
