Mon, 19 Jul 2004

Armstrong's 6th Tour

It's not a secret that in Spain, most of the people following the Tour, and cycling in general, prefer that Armstrong doesn't win his 6th Tour de France in a row.

Unluckily for us, during the stages across the Pyrenees, he has proven to be the strongest rider once again. We had hopes that after last year's very difficult victory, this year Mayo, Ullrich, Heras and others would be able to beat him in the mountain. All the contrary... Mayo seems to be about to quit, Heras hasn't been seen anywhere near the first groups in the important summits and Ullrich just doesn't seem to keep up with Armstrong. If nothing extraordinary happens in the Alps, Armstrong will set a new record in the Tour, which will be probably unbeaten for decades. Too bad for Miguel's mark...

I know a few gnomies at the other side of the Atlantic will be happy about this, though. ;)

13:20 | [] | # | (comments: 3)

You have to admit that US Postal are by far the best team around right now. At the bottom of the last climb on Saturday there were 4 posties, along with Mancebo, Basso, Ullrich, Voeckler and the rest of the leading peloton.

That gave Armstrong 3 friends to 1 for Voeckler, and everyone else was more or less on their own. If there were more Telekommers, Ullrich might have been able to attack earlier and perhaps put the postal guys in some trouble - as it was, the other teams just seem to wait for Postal to ride all over them.

Too bad for Voeckler - I think he will probably lose his yellow jersey tomorrow, or if not definitely in the Alpes d'Huez. And Basso is going to lose 4 or 5 minutes there too. And given that Ullrich is not in great form, I don't think he'll win back the 2 or 3 minutes he would need to to put pressure on Lance. Looks to me like Armstrong will be cruising to Paris for the next few days.

Dave.

Posted by Dave Neary at Mon Jul 19 14:02:42 2004

Totally agree, Dave.

I thought Phonak would do a great Tour, as they have a very good team, in theory. Too bad Hamilton and Sevilla were not too ready for this Tour, it seems.

Nobody can discuss that US Postal has the best team right now. Chechu and Azevedo did a great job the other day, as Heras did in the previous years. It's surprising how easily Armstrong is going to win this edition, apparently. Last year, it seemed like his reign was about to finish, until Beloki crashed. This year, many of the favourites have just not been rivals at all.

Posted by Jordi at Mon Jul 19 15:32:46 2004

I'm spanish but I wish Armstrong will win his 6th Tour. Don't forget he has worked hard to be where he is today, even having to fight against illness during his way up.
Regards.

Posted by Alberto at Thu Jul 22 19:04:38 2004