Armstrong and U.S. Postal Win Tour Team Time Trial

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030709/sp_nm/cycling_tour_winner_dc_1 ^

[jern]

Armstrong and U.S. Postal Win Tour Team Time Trial 28 minutes ago Add Sports - Reuters to My Yahoo!

ST. DIZIER (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong's U.S. Postal team won the 43-mile Tour de France fourth stage team time trial from Joinville to Saint Dizier Wednesday

[jern]

ST. DIZIER, France (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong's teammate Victor Hugo Pena became the first Colombian to lead the Tour de France when his U.S. Postal team won the fourth stage, a 43-mile team time trial between Joinville and St. Dizier on Wednesday.



Armstrong's team, which had never won a team time trial on the Tour, clocked one hour 18.27 seconds, while Spain's ONCE, winner of similar stages on the Tour in 2000 and last year, was second in 1:18.57.


Bianchi, the team of Germany's1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich, was third in 1:19.10.


Pena took the leader's yellow jersey off Frenchman Jean-Patrick Nazon, whose Jean Delatour team was more than three minutes off the pace.


American Lance Armstrong, who bids for a record-equaling fifth stage, was impressive in leading his team to victory and now lies second overall, one second behind Pena.

[Frank_Discussion]

Let me be the first to say:

GO POSTAL!

[camle]

isn't it nice that our postal service has so much money that they can sponsor athletes in sports contests all over the globe?

now if they could only deliver the mail.

[auboy]

Lance the French! Just go Postal on 'em!

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[ewing]

That was awesome, 8 out of the Top 10 riders in the tour are now US Postal!

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Next thing you know, the IRS will be sponsoring Nascar! :)

[MEG33]

WOW!

[ewing]

1st Tour De France Team Time Trial win EVER by the USA!

[Andyman]

Live in some other country THEN complain about the mail. I personally think it is remarkable that for 37 cents we can get a letter across the country in just a few days. Try Canada some time. 10 days to get a letter from coast to coast (42 cents, converted). Send a letter from Toronto to Edmonton and it is maybe a week, but from Toronto to Sherwood Park, a suburb of Edmonton, add 3 days.

The cost is low and the service is good (including Saturday delivery, unlike Canada) and no, I do not work for the USPS.

[William McKinley]

Ummmm... ok

[auboy]

now if they could only deliver the mail.

That's funny… my mail carrier just delivered my mail… just like he does six days a week… to within 75 feet on my front door. Wow!

[ewing]

The USPS can get packges into Iraq faster than that.

[RetiredArmy]

now if they could only deliver the mail.

If these guys were you'd get it a lot quicker!!!

[auboy]

Andyman… you got the wrong man. I'm completely innocent… Mark Garragos (spelling?) says so… so it must be so. It was a Satanic Cult… that's it.;-)

[cinFLA]

Live in some other country THEN complain about the mail. I personally think it is remarkable that for 37 cents we can get a letter across the country in just a few days.

Years ago the PO had a goal of delivering all 1st class mail in the US withing 3 days. Now you have to pay PRIORITY rates and HOPE it will be delivered in 3 days!

In MD, it was typically 3 to 4 days for first class mail to go across town.

Dem. Steny Hoyer (MD) was head of the cong. comm. and his district had the worst performance in the nation. Then in 94 the Pubs took over and improved it greatly. However, SH went on to campaign about how HE had fixed the system!

[bandleader]

Lance Armstrong,All AMERICAN!!!Go Get Em',Lance!!!!

[cinFLA]

That's funny… my mail carrier just delivered my mail…

and my neigbors mail. Excuse me while I take my neighbor's mail over to them.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

That's funny… my mail carrier just delivered my mail… just like he does six days a week… to within 75 feet on my front door. Wow!

My mail carrier delivers a lot of mail to within 75 feet of my front door. The problem is that I frequently have to redistribute some of it to the correct addresses throughout the neighborhood.

[cinFLA]

I went to the PO the other day. Looking around I was amazed how much has changed since the 1950's. Now the scale and stamp machines are electronic! Of course, now you have to 'take a number'.

[MEG33]

Really great performance.Hope the French are not going to do anything ugly.

[dd5339]

Lance ping! GO LANCE GO!

Semper Fi!

[auboy]

Guess I am extremely lucky to have a mail carrier who can read, is organized, and cares that mail gets to the correct address. Service does decline when he's on vacation.

That said… Go Lance… Go U.S. Postal!

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Hope the French are not going to do anything ugly.

There's already a nasty rumor that they're going to refuse to not bathe.

[MEG33]

That's the same old ,same old!

[Paradox]

Egads! Next thing you know, their women will start shaving their armpits!

[Warren]

Are there any athletes that have more endurance than these long distance cyclists? These guys can ride at full speed for an incredibly long time.

[RetiredArmy]

Professional bike riders are among the most phycially fit humans in the entire world. I heard on OLN the other night were one of Lance’s guys was like 5 foot 6 and 135 pounds. Like zero body fat. That is incredible!! I run 20 miles a week and I am 5-10 and 170 and wear size 32 slacks. I am fat compared to this guy!!

[CWOJackson]

Well, folks can complain about the Postal Service all they want but it would appear the USPS is better then anything the french have to offer.

[ironman]

"Professional bike riders are among the most phycially fit humans in the entire world"

I wouldn't argue with that at all. Triathletes are right up there. Udo Boltz who rides for Telecom did the Hawaii Ironman 2 years ago and his bike split was top 5 but not the fastest. Chan McRae who used to ride for Postal and grew up with Lance in Texas this year has started doing tris again racing as a pro. Would be great for Lance to return to triathlon after he's done with the TDF.

[ironman]

32.8 mph on a bike for 43 miles is smoking!

[Sir_Ed]

I went to my PO box the other day...every single wall sign was in Spanish, with much smaller English translations underneath.

Pissed me off! This is Oregon, not Baja California!

Ed

[ewing]

Triatheles and Super Long Distance Marathoners [50 miles] are the only ones I can come up with and the Ultra Marathoners are the only ones who run over mountains.

Of course they dont do it for 3 weeks in a row..

[cinFLA]

I went to my PO box the other day...every single wall sign was in Spanish, with much smaller English translations underneath.

When the CA PO put out the forms in Spanish, Vietnamese, etc, they put little flags on each to identify them easily. On the Vietnamese forms, they put the flag of (NORTH) Vietname. Really po'd the local Vietnamese population and the PO had to remove them.

[ewing]

[ewing]

[ewing]

[MalcolmS]

The problem with the Canadian Postal Service is . . . CONFLICT OF INTEREST!. They also own Purolator courier. They have no interest in reliable rapid delivery of mail as it would cut into their courier business.

Why isn't anyone concerned about two-tier delivery service?

[cogitator]

Triatheles and Super Long Distance Marathoners [50 miles] are the only ones I can come up with and the Ultra Marathoners are the only ones who run over mountains.

Though little-known (partly because it's certainly not a spectator sport), there is a sport of professional long-distance swimming. I knew one guy who tried to be on the circuit. The money is such that if you aren't in the top 3-4, you can't break even on travel expenses. For some unfathomable reason it's an extremely popular sport in Egypt and Central/South America.

Part of the circuit is the FINA (Federacion Internationale de Natation) World Cup of Marathon Swimming. The only race in the U.S. in the World Cup is held in Atlantic City NJ. This year's race is August 9.

FINA Marathon Swimming World Cup 2003

Not too many U.S. athletes involved. But as a measure, in the first race the winner went 57 km in 7.5 hours (4.5 miles an hour). Probably current-aided in a river. The next race was in Abu Dhabi (no rivers): 16 km in 2.8 hours, or 3.4 miles an hour. That's about the top speed marathon swimmers can maintain in slack water. If you swim in a 25-yard pool, this pace is just under 6,000 yards an hour, which would be 240 laps!

And they don't get to wear wetsuits, either.

[Weimdog]

An amazing ride by the "Posties" today. The joy on Hincapie's face at the finish was priceless.

Talk of another Armstrong / Ullrich battle is heating up again with team Bianchi's 3rd place today.

The big loser today has to be Simoni, this years Giro d' Italia winner, who's Saeco team performance today leaves him 3 minutes or so back.

Stage 8 on Sunday to L'Alpe d'Huez is a must see. The classic mountain top finish will be the first big mountain stage and should shake out the men from the boys.

[af_vet_rr]

Are you surprised by the number of American flags along the route? Clearly a lot of patriots over there (either cycling fans or military stationed in Europe).

I heard there were over 20,000 French police, both uniformed and not, along the routes, and that the routes are checked constantly. They are afraid of somebody from certain countries in a certain area (*cough* middle east *cough*), doing something since the riders (*cough* American Lance Armstrong *cough*) are so vulnerable along the route.

I have a good feeling that everything will turn out alright though, and that an American will be rolling to his 5th consecutive victory in a few weeks.

[af_vet_rr]

Of course they dont do it for 3 weeks in a row..

This is what still amazes me.

[VOA]

Armstrong and U.S. Postal Win Tour Team Time Trial

I may be mistaken, but didn't one of the US team break a collarbone in the
pile-up a few days ago?
If he's still riding with this bunch...now that's something!

[ironman]

Tyler Hamilton (American former Postie) now rides for CSC. It is amzaing he is still in the race!

[1rudeboy]

Whoa.

[ewing]

Correct, Ligget was setting the stage for a Ulrich/Armstrong Duel come Sunday..

[ewing]

And I have heard of 'Ultra Triatahons' but then again not spread out over three weeks..

[VOA]

Tyler Hamilton (American former Postie) now rides for CSC. It is amzaing he
is still in the race!

You're right...and I affirmed that I wasn't watching closely enough!

Maybe I'm the last person to hear about this but.....
I just saw an article (Yahoo! Sports, I think) that said that Hamilton and his
CSC (Danish, I guess) team are being filmed during the Tour in IMAX format for
a film to titled "Brainpower". The film is suppossed to be about the brain portion
of the race, e.g., strategizing, forcing through barriers, etc.

I can't help but think that Hamilton is doing this "triumph of the will"
(in a positive, not the old Nazi, sense of course) because he and his team
are the focus of the IMAX filming.

[RetiredArmy]

Those others are great also, however, they do it for one day and are done. These guys have to keep it up for three weeks with two so called off days which they actually go out and ride. So, it is three solid weeks in the seat and up and down two different sets of mountains. I just love it when basketball, football or baseball players say that bike riders, runners, etc, are not athletes. Like some 350 pound DL for the Rams could keep up with Armstrong. Well, maybe if he was in his BMW SUV he might could! LOL