He sabotaged his own TT time to avoid taking the yellow jersey too soon... according to Lance's aerodynamics man. Eddy Merckx said that Lance is preparing for "le grande spectacle". Personally, I'd like to see Lance blow things open, but I guess we'll have to keep waiting. Dammit.
I'd love to see Lance blow the race to pieces, whether it be up Ventoux or elsewhere in the mountains. However, I don't think we'll have to wait too long. If what Merckx said is true (I'm trying to find it myself right now) and Lance has the strength, he'll take out a minute or two on La Mongie (which is, I think, the Tourmalet) on Thursday....he always makes a move during the first mountain stage and I really can't see 2002 being different. Ventoux may see him take out 5 minutes if he has the legs.
I love it! Yeah Why do guys even do that anymore?! Old Skool thinking? Pics of Lance in the airport on their restday seem pretty laid back. Its all quiet before the storm boys, get ready! One more flat stage today and then... Thursday:WOOO-HOOO!!! BTW My OLN channel has been out since Monday so I didn't get to watch or tape the TT!(I'm taping the entire freakin TDF!). I'm actually taking off work early to meet the dummies from Warner Cable "between 12 and 5" so I can watch tonite! "Between 12 and 5" don't ya hate that ****!?!?!
Today's the first big day in the tour, with a Cat 1 climb and the finishing climb up to La Mongie. Too bad they don't go all the way up the Tourmalet, since the part they skip is the toughest part, but any climb will do! The race should get going here in the next hour or two, and I'm definately getting up in a few hours to watch the live coverage. Now for some live coverage on Sunday to Mont Ventoux and I'll be a happy camper!
Allez Lance! Nice stage win today - little effort from Lance, but he put a lot of time into all of his main rivals except Beloki, who did all he could to hang on. Unless Joseba recovers overnight, he's going to struggle to hold onto Lance tomorrow. But the rider of the day is definately Roberto Heras. Lance probably would've attacked earlier if not for Heras, but since he was able to conserve energy, he can (potentially) take out more time tomorrow, a harder mountain stage than today.
Awesome win! Hoo-Raaaah! Lance! Don't mess with Texas! I can't wait to watch it tonite now that my digital cable is back on! Lance dropping Beloki in the final few hundred meters! He is now 1:12 ahead of #2Beloki! Photo ©: AFP Photo/Joel Saget
Oh My!!! His teammate hung with him the whole race. The world has no chance if Lance has a teammate with him for the whole race on these mountains. The field was 1:03 behind Haras. So Lance and Haras were battling Beloki together. Lance and Haras can work to rest Lance and to prevent Beloki from taking off. Even if Lance has a flat or something, or is aching (unlikely), Haras would stay with him and work with him to get back to chase down Beloki. You can't beat that.
Think today's profile was tough enough for the competition to crumble on? Look at the profile for Friday: The Col de Mente and Col de la Core are cat. 1 climbs; Col de Portet-D'Aspet and Col de Port are cat. 2 climbs - and after all of that, at the end, the climb up to Plateau de Beille is an hors categorie climb, beyond classification - 15.9km at 7.8%. Quite possibly the 2nd hardest day in the entire tour behind the next to last stage in the Alps (with three H.C. climbs), tomorrow could see some large time gaps open up once again. Saturday is a "rest day" riding along the southern French coast, but Sunday (only live on webfeed at olntv.com, darn it) is no rest day at all: Mont Ventoux is where everyone expects Lance to make his move - and it very well could come there, seeing as how it is one of the toughest climbs in any tour in the world - 21km uphill at an average of 7.5% gradient.
USPS signed him from such a situation, after he won the Vuelta for Kelme in 2000. According to the Cyclingnews.com news archive from mid-September 2000, he is free after this year:
Lance did it again! He won by 1:04 over his teammate Heras, who is flashing his form from the 2000 Vuelta all over again, and Joseba Beloki, who did all he could to catch back up to Heras in the final 5 km. Today, Lance had all 8 teammates with him up to the final climb, then everything broke loose. Eventually, Chechu Rubiera did all of the pace making while the peloton was whittled down to 10-15 riders in chase of a three man breakaway - Jalabert, Laurant Dufaux, and Isidrio Nozal. With about 7km to go, after catching Jalabert, Rubiera put in one last charge that dropped a few more riders, after which he pulled off and Heras did a quick, faster turn that dropped everyone but - you guess it - Armstrong and Beloki. But then - Lance attacked! The gap grew slowly to about 20 seconds over Beloki and Heras, when Heras attacked Beloki! He tried to catch up to Lance, but couldn't do it and sat up, riding on Beloki's wheel until the final 200m when he passed him in the sprint for 2nd. A great 1-2 for USPS...and a special win for Lance after having passed the Memorial to Fabio Casartelli today. Yesterday was 7 years to the day since he died in the TdF; today was the stage past the monument. Lance won em both and now leads by 2:30 over Beloki. I can't wait for Ventoux!
I read that USPS put in one of the best team mountain stage efforts ever, having all 9 guys at the base of the last climb.
