Yes, it's wierd... an individual sport that depends on teams... and your team times are factored in to your individual times. You'll have to watch a few stages on OLN to get a feel for it, but to use a bad analogy, it's sort of like football... you've got a star runningback headed downfield and all the linemen and receivers are going to try and block for him so he reaches the end zone. Lance is the ball carrier for US Postal. In today's action, it looks like a breakaway will succeed and Lance will not be in Yellow tomorrow. None of the breakaways appear to be a long-term threat to the favorties.
Article on today's stage... _____________ Armstrong loses overall lead at Tour - - - - - - - - - - - - By Jamey Keaten July 8, 2004 | Chartres, France -- Lance Armstrong lost his overall lead in the Tour de France to Thomas Voeckler on Thursday, an honor the five-time champion willingly conceded -- for now. Withstanding rain-doused roads and high wind, Australia's Stuart O'Grady of Cofidis won the Tour's fifth stage with a sprint finish ahead of Voeckler and three other riders who broke early from the main pack and held on. O'Grady thrust his arms in the air after winning a Tour de France stage for the second time in his career. Denmark's Jakob Piil was second and France's Sandy Casar was third. Voeckler, the French champion, was fourth. At one point, the five-rider group built a lead as large as 17 minutes ahead of the pack on the 124.6-mile stage from Amiens to Chartres. The breakaway riders clocked 5 hours, 5 minutes and 58 seconds; Armstrong and the pack finished 12 minutes, 33 seconds later. Armstrong, who was 24th in the stage, fell to sixth overall -- 9 minutes and 35 seconds off Voeckler's pace. Voeckler chuckled when asked what his lead over Armstrong meant. "Oh, I don't think he's worried about me," the 25-year-old Frenchman said. Voeckler, riding for Brioches La Boulangere, epitomized how fickle the Tour can be from one day to the next. He entered the stage three minutes behind Armstrong in 59th place. Mishaps -- tire punctures, derailed chains and spills on rain-soaked roads -- marred much of the course through bucolic wheat fields and rolling hills northwest of Paris. Armstrong, seeking a record sixth straight Tour victory, captured the overall leader's yellow jersey a day earlier, thanks in part to a first-place performance in the team time trial by his U.S. Postal Service squad. But controlling the race lead so early brings pressures along with honors -- and Armstrong's coach said the 32-year-old Texan was willing to give up the yellow jersey temporarily and focus on bigger threats. "We can't kill the team for a breakaway by five people who aren't a threat in the overall classification," Postal sporting director Johan Bruyneel said. "I'm comfortable with the situation." Four of Armstrong's U.S. Postal teammates crashed about halfway through the course. Jose Luis Rubiera was treated by a race doctor, who swabbed down his leg from a car as the rider hung on to the vehicle's window. Australian sprint specialist Bradley McGee, who complained of hip problems from the start of the race, dropped out Thursday. http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2004/07/08/tour/print.html
Armstrong bowing out of the Olympics...guess he knows he doesn't stand a chance against Jan Ullrich there...
Lance fell, but recovered... _______________ Associated Press ANGERS, France -- Lance Armstrong recovered from an early fall and finished in a pack behind stage winner Tom Boonen of Belgium in the Tour de France on Friday. Armstrong, trying for a record sixth straight Tour title, was thrown from his bike but not hurt in a crash involving a number of cyclists about 20 minutes into Friday's sixth stage, a 122-mile run from Bonneval to Angers. But the fall didn't derail Armstrong's bid for another Tour title. He quickly got back in the race and, with help from his U.S. Postal Service teammates, caught up with the pack. He was not seriously hurt, but appeared to have a scrape on his right leg. The spill was the first of this Tour for the 32-year-old Texan and came a day after he said he was worried about crashing. "In this race, I'm always scared, always nervous," he said. "The last two or three days for me, personally, have been really, really nerve-racking. "It's a stressful race." Boonen won a sprint finish Friday, speeding past Cofidis' Stuart O'Grady of Australia and T-Mobile rider Erik Zabel of Germany. Thomas Voeckler of France retained the overall leader's yellow jersey. American Tyler Hamilton, a former teammate of Armstrong who now rides for Phonak, blew a tire, but caught up with the main group near the 36-mile mark.
LeMond not sure Armstrong's clean Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond suggested he's not convinced Lance Armstrong is so clean. "Lance is ready to do anything to keep his secret," LeMond told France's Le Monde newspaper in an interview published Thursday. "I don't know how he can continue to convince everybody of his innocence," the daily quoted Lemond as saying. Fellow American LeMond who won the Tour in 1986, 1989 and 1990. Armstrong, who has won five Tours and is seeking a record sixth crown, has repeatedly denied doping accusations. This is not the first time Le Monde newspaper has leveled doping accusations against Armstrong, and his team manager Johan Bruyneel said he wasn't surprised. "Le Monde is a newspaper whose intentions we know. And if I can make a suggestion to the editor it would be that they change their sports and cycling pages into a doping page." "There's nothing we can do to counter it," Bruyneel said. Armstrong entered the Tour shadowed by a new book, "L.A. Confidential, The Secrets of Lance Armstrong," that insinuates he probably has used drugs. The French-language book by journalists Pierre Ballester and David Walsh hit stores less than three weeks before the start of the race. "I was a big supporter of Lance the first year that he won the Tour," LeMond was quoted as saying. "But with all these stories it's difficult to stay a supporter." http://msn.foxsports.com/story/2577428
Lemond accuses Armstrong 15/07/2004 14:05 - (SA) Paris - Triple winner Greg LeMond has queried whether five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is as clean as he claims. LeMond, the first American to win the Tour, says just because Armstrong has never tested positive for banned substances does not necessarily prove he is not using drugs. "Everybody says that. But neither had David Millar tested positive and he now admits he took EPO," LeMond told Le Monde daily. World time-trial champion Millar admitted to a French judge two weeks ago he had used the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO). As world time-trial champion and a three-time stage winner in the Tour de France, Millar is cycling's most high-profile casualty of a police drugs investigation since the Festina scandal of 1998. The 27-year-old was the ninth Cofidis team member to be placed under investigation in a police inquiry, which began in January after the arrest of a young Polish professional, Marek Rutkiewicz, at Charles de Gaulle airport. "The problem with Lance is that you're either a liar or you're out to destroy cycling," said LeMond who won in 1986, 1989 and 1990. "Lance is ready to do anything to keep his secret but I don't know how long he can convince everybody of his innocence." Last week Armstrong lost an appeal against a ruling denying him the right to insert a denial against accusations of doping published in a book released last month. The book "LA Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" by award-winning Sunday Times journalist David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, a cycling specialist formerly with French sports daily L'Equipe, alleges he used banned drugs. The book focuses on statements attributed to Emma O'Reilly, a physiotherapist who worked with Armstrong from 1998-2000. O'Reilly claims Armstrong used the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). Armstrong has never tested positive for banned substances and has always strenuously denied taking any such products. http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/Tour_de_France/0,,2-9-1506_1558141,00.html
Armstrong's adviser taints Tour efforts By Sal Ruibal, USA TODAY LIMOGES, France — Italian physician Michele Ferrari has been involved in some of the most important decisions about Lance Armstrong's training and is the author of many of the theories of human performance that have made the U.S. rider one of the greatest bicycle racers. Dark clouds have followed Lance Armstrong this year, and his physician, Michele Ferrari, is being investigated in a doping scandal. "There are only four people who really know what's going on with Lance's body: me, Michele, (team director) Johan Bruyneel and Freddy (Viaene, Armstrong's massage therapist)," says Chris Carmichael, Armstrong's longtime coach. But Ferrari isn't with the U.S. Postal team car in France. He's watching the Tour on TV at home in Ferrara, Italy. That's because the 51-year-old Ferrari is also under investigation in a doping case in Italy that alleges he advised pro cyclist Filipo Simeoni and other athletes to use the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO) and testosterone-based Andriol in 1996 and 1997. Simeoni also claims Ferrari taught him how to beat drug tests. The Tour does not ban riders from taking advice from those under investigation, so Armstrong is not subject to dismissal because of his relationship with Ferrari and has not distanced himself from him. But the relationship has not helped the five-time champion in his assertions that he never has used performance-enhancing drugs and never has had a positive drug test. It's a matter of associations, as has been the case with track star Marion Jones and her relationships with various figures in the high-profile BALCO investigation. Jones also has said she never has used performance-enhancing drugs and never had a positive drug test. The Tour has shown a willingness to suspend riders under suspicion of using banned performance-enhancing drugs, even if they haven't had a positive doping test, much as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's charges could keep track and field athletes out of the Olympics even without a positive doping test. Monday, race officials dropped riders Stefano Casagranda of Italy and Martin Hvastija of Slovenia because they are under investigation for doping. Two other riders, including world time-trial champion David Millar of Scotland, were banned before the Tour began July 3. Intricate data helps adjust training Carmichael, former head coach of the U.S. Olympic cycling team, met Ferrari in San Diego in 1995 and soon introduced him to Armstrong, who had won a world championship and a stage in the Tour but was not considered a potential overall winner of the world's biggest cycling race. "He's a very smart guy," Carmichael says of Ferrari. Carmichael and Armstrong communicate with Ferrari mostly by e-mail. Armstrong uses a sophisticated SRM on-board cycling computer that stores data from each ride, including heart rates, speed, pedal cadence and power output measured in watts produced. He e-mails that data to Ferrari, who analyzes it and sends his observations to Carmichael. Ferrari's most famous formula — the Velocita Ascensionale Media (VAM) — produces a precise measure of the rider's rate of ascent, calculated over a specific distance and grade. Ferrari uses Armstrong's data to see what is the most efficient means of achieving maximum power output. "In mountain stages of races such as the Tour," Ferrari says, "most of the work a rider does goes to overcome gravity, so VAM is a useful indicator of the rider's form on that day." Carmichael adjusts the training program based on Ferrari's interpretation of Armstrong's physical state. "All of the training schedules are prescribed by me," Carmichael says. "I have the final decision." Sticking by his guy The final outcome on Ferrari is still far from determined. The case has been plodding through the Italian judicial system for more than two years. No final charges have been made; all doping charges that do not involve possession are considered "sports fraud." In a dramatic February 2002 court hearing in Bologna, Italy, Ferrari's chief accuser, Simeoni, testified that while he never received drugs from Ferrari, "I took EPO under the instructions of Dr. Ferrari, then further on from March to April (1997) we were talking about taking Andriol that I had to take after intensive training, based on strength, to give power to my muscles." Ferrari rebutted that testimony in an April 2003 hearing, telling the court, "Simeoni was caught red-handed and lied to get a lighter ban. Simeoni is a damned liar. He even lied to me." Armstrong first acknowledged the relationship with Ferrari in 2001 after newspaper stories brought up the issue at the same time his U.S. Postal team was under investigation by French prosecutors for alleged doping in the 2000 Tour. After a 19-month investigation into the use of the blood-boosting drug Actovegin, Armstrong and his team were cleared. The team said the drug was on hand for treating severe skin abrasions caused by crashes and for use by a staff member with diabetes. The Tour will not comment on the case because Ferrari is not part of the Tour in any official capacity. Armstrong, in the midst of his attempt to win an unprecedented sixth Tour title, has always said he believes Ferrari is innocent. The 32-year-old Texan adds that if Ferrari were to be convicted, he would cut all ties. "I believe that these charges are all groundless," Armstrong told USA TODAY in June. "Michele is telling the truth. I will back him until I see evidence otherwise. The man is extremely talented; he's more than a coach, he's like a mathematician or a physicist." After years of grinding through the glacial Italian judicial system, the case might finally be nearing resolution. Simeoni recently told cyclingnews.com he had been in touch with his lawyers "and they tell me that in a short time, the discovery part of the case will be closed by the prosecutor of Latina (Italy) and the date for the trial will be set." But the legal wrangling and resulting publicity connected to Ferrari will still go on. Armstrong is suing the authors of the recently released L.A. Confidential, the Secrets of Lance Armstrong, David Walsh and Pierre Ballester, for libel in the United Kingdom and France. Their French-language book contains allegations that Armstrong used performance-boosting drugs before he won the 1999 Tour and includes mentions of Ferrari. Armstrong, in turn, is being sued by Simeoni because the Tour champion allegedly defamed him by calling him a "compulsive liar" in the April 18 edition of the French daily newspaper Le Monde. Partnership has been intense Despite the controversy and huge risk Armstrong is taking should Ferrari be found guilty, their partnership has solidified. Armstrong implicitly trusts Ferrari's theories on high-altitude training, perhaps the key element in his dominance of the Tour. In an e-mail interview with USA TODAY, Ferrari said that his work with the champion takes up almost half of Armstrong's year. "My relationship with him is that of consultancy in training," Ferrari writes, "which we can simplify by subdividing it in three distinct phases: • "A first winter part of about eight to 10 weeks focused on strength work. • "A second 10- to 12-week part centered on aerobic work (endurance and aerobic power development). • "A subsequent part is usually that of fitness refining with race tempos." He also hosts three to four pre-Tour altitude-training camps, each spaced out by either training or racing periods at sea level. "Apart from this natural training, he does not use other hypoxic training methods or devices," Ferrari writes of Armstrong. "Sometimes he does sleep for some nights at simulated altitude (with an altitude tent) before actually going to the training camp, in order to better become acclimatized to altitude." To critics who have insinuated that altitude training is just a smoke screen to hide the use of blood boosters such as EPO, Ferrari points out that a person's hematocrit (red blood cell) level "is an extremely variable parameter, especially in athletes: Every time plasmatic volume changes, so does it modify hematocrit. Hydration status, physical efforts, detraining: all of these significantly alter the values of hematocrit, which can (give a test) result above the (legal) limit of 50%, even in athletes who didn't take any kind of medicine." But he does note that altitude training, "be it natural or simulated, stimulates the natural production of EPO, which itself favors the formation of red blood cells. "It is impossible to distinguish an artificial increase in hematocrit from a natural one." Learning through vast experience Ferrari has to be careful about what he says about synthetic EPO. He has been saddled for several years with what he says is an inaccurate quote that equated EPO's safety with that of orange juice. His intent, he writes, was to say that EPO and orange juice can be used safely, but both can be dangerous if abused. "EPO is illegal. And that is all about it," he writes in the email. "I'm totally against administration of any kind of medicines with the intent of artificially enhancing performance. Every athlete has rights to take medicines for therapeutic reasons or to limit the lesions caused by intense sport practice, obviously in every respect to laws and regulations. "I am convinced that it is possible to be competitive by developing and utilizing the most proper training strategies. The majority of doping medicines used in sport are not only dangerous for health; they definitely do not improve performances, if not even worsening them." Ferrari also writes that he has learned much from his experience with the judicial system and sees that the courts are not necessarily the best way to deal with the performance-enhancing drugs. " I personally think that prohibition alone does not resolve the doping problem," he writes. "It is necessary to make athletes understand, with the help of credible arguments, that doping is not essential, that often it can worsen performances and that it is possible to reach results through perfection of nutritional and training strategies and proper lifestyle." Expanding his involvement Ferrari, who was born, reared, earned his medical degree in medicine and surgery and still lives in the Italian town of Ferrara (and is no relation to the famed automaker), doesn't stray far from home. "His English is not too good," says Carmichael. "He's more comfortable with e-mail." From 1977-80 Ferrari was a consultant for the Italian Track and Field Federation, and from 1984-94 he was the physician for many professional cycling teams. There are signs that the reclusive Ferrari is ready to return to the public arena. He has begun an online coaching service, www.53x12.com, that is similar to Carmichael's personalized Web coaching system. Ferrari is also writing Tour commentaries for the popular Australian cyclingnews.com Web site and has begun granting interviews again, a practice he stopped after his infamous "orange juice" quote appeared. "He has suffered under this investigation for far too long," Armstrong says. "It is time for this to be over." http://www.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2004-07-13-armstrong-ferrari_x.htm
McEwen pips O'Grady for win number two Robbie McEwen won his second stage of the Tour de France after a nail-biting finale to the 160km ninth stage from St Leonard de Noblat to Gueret overnight. The Queenslander, who leads the points classification and won a stage in Namur a week ago, surged in the last 20 metres to beat Norwegian Thor Hushovd and Adelaide's Stuart O'Grady, both also stage winners on this Tour. The Australian pair have now won three of the Tour's nine stages to date. The overall lead was retained by France's Thomas Voeckler with a nine minutes, 35 seconds advantage on five-time champion Lance Armstrong, who spent a reasonably quite day on the roads of central France. O'Grady is the best-placed Australian in the overall standings, currently in second place at 2min 53 secs behind Voeckler. Australians Baden Cooke, Scott Sunderland and Allan Davis finished 12th, 13th and 14th in the final sprint. "It's a great victory after the crash and injury I suffered three days ago," said McEwen. "In the sprint, I gave all the energy I had left in my body." McEwen's win was tight and thrilling as the main bunch caught two breakaway riders with about 50 metres left in the shortest ride so far. Italian Filippo Simeoni and Spaniard Inigo Landaluze attacked in the 38th kilometre and the bunch, gearing up for a gruelling 10th stage to St Flour on Wednesday, did not budge at first. The two held a maximum lead of 10:05 before the pack started to react, helping Voeckler retain the yellow jersey. "The rest day on Monday was welcome but if the favourites start the serious fight tomorrow, it will be hard for me to keep the jersey," Voeckler admitted. "It's a long stage, heat is forecast and I must admit I'm a little afraid." To see Simeoni fail so close to the line must have pleased Armstrong as the Italian Domina Vacanze rider is one of the American's most bitter rivals, not on the bike but off it. Relaxed Armstrong Simeoni is suing the American for defamation after Armstrong called him a liar in an interview last year. The Italian was suspended for four months in 2002 after he accused Italian doctor Michele Ferrari, whom Armstrong considers a friend, of giving him doping substances. The case has not been judged in court yet but the short and bumpy ride in central France allowed Simeoni to make himself noticed as a sportsman. But Armstrong was in no mood for controversies after a gentle ride to Gueret. "We just sat on the wheels," said Armstrong. "We didn't take it easy but we didn't have any responsibility so it was fine. "I was surprised we caught them after they got such a time gap, we were flying at the end." There was other good news for Armstrong ahead of the tough 237-km stage on Wednesday, the longest of this year's Tour. Armstrong's leading rival, Jan Ullrich had been spared by crashes and incidents since the Tour start in Liege. But the German was held up by mechanical problems halfway through Tuesday's stage and had to be brought back into the peloton by his T-Mobile team-mates. Estonia's Jaan Kirsipuu, winner of the first stage in Charleroi, called it quits in the first climb of the day, and the stage was also marred by a spectacular crash in the last five kilometres, involving Spaniard Mikel Pradera and Norway's Kurt-Asle Arvesen. Both crossed the line seven minutes and nine seconds behind the main bunch. http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200407/s1153321.htm
Where in Austin does Lance train in the offseason? The hills in the Northwest or is he farther south than that?
The Lance Armstrong Foundation (I think that's the name of it) offices were off Bee Caves Road back in 2001, but I'm not sure if it's in the same location. I had a friend who was a paralegal at a law firm in the same complex and when I'd go to lunch with her, I'd occasionally see Lance and others either getting their bikes out or putting them up after a ride. So, I guess he spends sometime in the southwest part of town.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=1840215 Associated Press FIGEAC, France -- Lance Armstrong finished ninth in Thursday's stage of the Tour de France and accused French reporters of trying to rummage through his hotel room in hopes of finding evidence of doping. Frenchman David Moncoutie won the 11th stage. Countryman Thomas Voeckler kept the overall leader's yellow jersey, still 9 minutes, 35 seconds ahead of the sixth-placed Armstrong. Armstrong, bidding for a record sixth straight Tour de France title, said a French television crew attempted to get access to his room after he left to race in the 102-mile stage from Saint-Flour to Figeac in central France. "Just this morning, after we left, a TV crew from France 3 was going to the hotel, the reception, to the owner, asking for our room, trying to get in our room," Armstrong said. He called such behavior "scandalous" and said he was scared that products could be planted to make him look guilty. "They show up and they ask sporting questions to our face, but as soon as they leave they're digging in the rooms and looking for dirt," he said. "If you left a B vitamin sitting there, that would get on TV and that would be a scandal. That's what we have to live with every day." "This particular guy from France 3 has been following us for months and it's scandalous," he said. "The scary thing is, if they don't find anything and get frustrated after a couple of months ... well, who's to say they won't put something there and say 'look what we've found.'" Moncoutie captured his first stage victory in five Tours by breaking away from the pack with two other riders and then leaving them in his wake as he rode alone over the last few miles to the line. He was the second French rider to win in two days. Richard Virenque won the 10th stage on Wednesday -- France's Bastille Day national holiday. Another French rider, Jean-Patrick Nazon, also won a stage in the first week. "To win a Tour stage is fabulous," said Moncoutie, who comes from the region crossed by Thursday's route. "It was one of my dreams." Armstrong was in a group that finished 5:58 behind Moncoutie's mark of 3 hours, 54 minutes, 58 seconds. That group also included Armstrong rivals Jan Ullrich, Iban Mayo, Tyler Hamilton and Ivan Basso. Armstrong and other top favorites saving themselves for the punishing and probably decisive stages in the Pyrenees and Alps did not chase Moncoutie, letting him surge ahead. Voeckler is expected to lose the lead to the Tour's top riders in the mountain stages, with the first Pyrenean stage Friday.
German Jan Ullrich convicted amphetamine addict. Is this his secret to staying competitive with Lance..? Ullrich handed drugs ban "Former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has been suspended from racing for six months after failing a drugs test. The German cyclist tested positive for amphetamines..." _______________________________ Link
It's painfully obvious that he is preparing his defense already for the day when the truth will inevitably come out.
"The German cyclist tested positive for amphetamines in June while recovering from a knee injury. " 1) He never was an addict, you added that... 2) When he tested positive, he had not even been racing in 8 months or so, and he was not going to in 4 or 5...since he had a severe injury. There was absolutely no reason for him to take that stuff to enhance his performance. I heard it was some kind of "happy pill" he took in a discotheque. Overall, I think most of those guys (probably Ullrich, too) do something to enhance their performance illegally. I just think Armstrong has perfected that "art", and I think he is the one who is the most outrageous liar of them all.
sure, whatever keeps hope alive for ya Jan Ullrich has been suspended from racing for six months after failing a drugs test.
