Tour de France-Day 16-A Breakaway and the Giant of Provence

Yahoo! News ^ | July 21 | sportinglife

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Lance Armstrong and the Mont Ventoux are two names which loom in the consciousness of any rider who wants to win the Tour de France and today the American attacked the mountain with a gusto to leave his rivals gasping.

Mont Ventoux, an extinct volcano, is a brutal and treeless climb at the end of stage 14, lifting the riders from near sea level to 1,912 metres above in only 21 kilometres.

But when Spaniard Joseba Beloki launched a half-hearted attack seven kilometres from the top, Armstrong erupted with a ferocious bite-back and he now leads the tour by over four minutes.

Already leading comfortably overall, he could have tagged along with Beloki, who was nearly two and a half minutes behind in second overall, but instead he counter-attacked in unprecedented style.

And all that almost overshadowed the fact that the stage was already effectively over, with Frenchman Richard Virenque from the Domo-Farm Frites team well ahead after an early break and Russian Alexandr Botcharov from the AG2R Prevoyance also comfortably in second.

But while Virenque deservedly took the adulation of the home crowd with his sixth career Tour stage win, Armstrong was locked in a more personal battle with a mountain which has become a part of Tour mythology as much as any rider.

Known as The Giant of Provence, the shadeless upper slopes proved too much for English rider Tom Simpson, who collapsed and died in the 1967 Tour, while in 2000 both Armstrong and Italian Marco Pantani fought their way to the top before the American controversially allowed Pantani through to win.

This year, riding alone and probably with that incident prickling at the back of his mind, Armstrong stuck to his favoured lower gears and ground his way forward, sweeping past iBanesto's Dariusz Baranowski from Poland, but working hard and clearly drawing on all his prodigious energy reserves.

In the end the effort paid massive dividends in terms of the overall race.

When he finally stepped down, exhausted, onto the lunar landscape of the summit, Armstrong had taken one giant leap towards a fifth Tour title.

He now leads Beloki by four minutes and 21 seconds, with his favoured stages in the Alps still to come and a rest day on Monday to recover from his extraordinary ride.

The climb left the rest of the field strung out in ragged bunches, and seriously shook up the overall classification standings behind Armstrong.

Beloki hung on to second for Once-Eroski, but countryman and team-mate Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano slipped to fourth as Lampre's Lithuanian Raimondo Rumsas moved into third.

The rest of the top 10 was also completely rearranged, with Virenque's win lifting him into 10th from 28th.

The four coloured jerseys didn't change hands, with Armstrong emphatically holding the yellow, Frenchman Laurent Jalabert from CSC-Tiscali doing enough to keep the polka-dot climber's jersey, Australian Robbie McEwen still in the green for Lotto and Italy's Ivan Basso looking impressive for Fassa Bortolo in the young rider's white jersey.

After Monday's rest day, the riders face a gruelling day of seven significant climbs over 226.5kms on stage 15, which culminates in the category one climb to the finish at Les Deux Alpes.

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Early in the stage a breakaway formed that extended its lead to 12 minutes. This lead had shrunk to 8 minutes for the leading group of ten at the base of the mountain and a determined Virenque made it stick as Lance whittled it down to 2 minutes and 19 seconds. Shows what kind of effort is required to win even one mountain stage from the USPS team and Lance Armstrong.

More great racing in the days to come as the Alps loom on the horizon!

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Ping!

Expletives escape me. Lance is a brilliant rider but also a great person -- which I think adds to the aura that surrounds him. I'll write a little more about Lance later as I did the translation into French at his press conference for the race organization.

Before I go any further, I have to say "chapeau" (hats off) to Richard Virenque. I don't mind what you think about what he has done, we all have an opinion and none of us can condone drug cheats, but he has paid his dues -- long and hard. His last five kilometers today were his resurrection vis-a-vis the French spectators.

He had to dig hard and deep to find some way to survive those closing minutes. Breaking away for 180 kilometers before the final climb and still staying clear to the end takes something special. He knows he is not the climber he was, but still dreamed of winning on the "Giant of Provence."

At the press conference, Lance was asked if he thought that he was too strong for the Tour and that he overpowered it too much. He answered, "I love this race. I want to win it for me, my team, my sponsors, the American cycling fans, the American public and all the cancer survivors around the world. I have to win this race for as long as I can."

Asked about not winning on the Mont Ventoux after letting Pantani win in 2000, " That was a disappointment then and I made a mistake. But I didn't come here to win the Mont Ventoux, I came to win the Tour de France. I know the Tour will come back here again before I retire so I'll have another chance."

He did a great job even if he didn't win -- he now leads by over 4 minutes. - Paul Sherwen, letour.com

[BlessedAmerican]

I know nothing about this sport although I have followed Armstrong's career. Can you tell me how many stages there are and is there a website that could be helpful to someone who wants to find out more about this race and maybe follow it with a little understanding of what is going on? Thank you....

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

As always, thanks for the post and the ping.

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The Tour de France ends with the 20th stage on the 28th, one week from today. Try these websites:


http://www.letour.com/2002/us/index.html

http://www.lancearmstrong.com/

[CrossCheck]

I heard them say on the telly that Armstrong's heart is one third larger than normal. The great horse Secretariat also had a heart that was quite a bit larger than normal. All other things being equal, this is probably part of the reason why Armstrong can overwhelm the competition in the mountains.

[Mariner]

Yep, it's about like riding from Detroit to San Francisco.......twice the mountains.

[Drango]

Yep, it's about like riding from Detroit to San Francisco

??? I can see leaving Detroit, but why would anyone ride to San Francisco????

[Glutton]

Lance Armstrong, is the greatest athelete in the world. I am very, very proud of his preformance in this year's tour.

It will be extremely awesome if he ultimately beats Eddy Merckx's record and becomes the greatest Tour De France winner of all time. I truly never expected to see an American do so well.

Many years in the past people like me would bug news providers to cover the Tour better, and we would be content if an American finished in the top ten overall.

Now we have a cancer survivor and a Texan giving a new meaning to the expression, "going postal." I am very very proud of this guy. Greg LeMond and him have made me a very happy bicycle fanatic.

[Toidylop]

Just overheard from one of the OLN commentators (forgot which one?) saying Lance's resting heart rate is around 35 pulses per minute!!! Is it possible? Wow... No wonder he has the heart to win.

[Fred Hayek]

Actually Miguel Indurain's was lower. Reportedly down around 28. Indurian was no small rider (like Pantani), yet still a powerful climber.

To put the Mont Ventoux climb in perspective, in English units that's about 6000 feet of climbing in 13 miles. That is a long steep climb. The biggest "short distance" climb that I did in a race was the Santa Fe Hillclimb Race in August of 2000. Started at Fort Marcy Park (in Santa Fe NM, not where Vince Foster's body was dumped), about 7000 feet, to the Santa Fe Ski Basin, about 10300 feet, all within 15 miles. OK, so there's an altitude factor in that one. My legs were so fried at the end (not to mention the altitude headache), I rode a pickup truck back to the start instead of the bike.

[Prodigal Son]

Usually a long distance athlete who has trained in his sport for years and years will have a larger heart. My wife was a cross country skier for most of her life- she was on the German National Team. Her heart is bigger than mine. Also, she hasn't trained for 8 years now and her heart rate is still in the low 50s. When I met her, it was much lower. It was freaky to lay my head on her chest and listen- the pause between heartbeats was much longer than normal. Also, superbly trained distance athletes like this, their heart pumps harder as well. The muscle squeezes harder. It takes a lot more exertion to raise their heart rates to what us mere mortals would have given similar exercise. When I run with my wife, my heart rate is way up there but her's doesn't seem to be that high at all.

[uncbob]

Just overheard from one of the OLN commentators (forgot which one?) saying Lance's resting heart rate is around 35 pulses per minute!!! Is it possible? Wow... No wonder he has the heart to win.

Back when I was 42 to 50 and running 2 marathons a year on only 35-40 miles a week and doing about 70 miles a week on the bike my resting rate averaged 39 to 42

I was just a middle of the pack runner.
Today at age 66 and still jogging and some biking but no marathons it is at 48 per minute

[Drango]

We have in our group a least one world class Triathlete. You know, the sport that Lance gave up, 'cause it was too hard...

Seriously, screen name Ironman, will be going to Hawaii once again. Rock 'em Ironman...

[ironman]

One correction to the article: Lance is going for win number 4.

Comparing resting heart rate from athlete to athlete is interesting but not really that meaningful. There are too many variables involved. Yes, there is a correlation to fitness, but not that you can conclude an athlete with a 35 bpm resting rate will beat and athlete with 40 bpm rate. If an athlete hasn't recovered from the previous day's effort the rate will be higher. Infact, an elevated heart rate (from your known regular rate) is an indicator of overtraining. BTW, my resting rate is right around 40. I will be doing the Hawaii Ironman for my 5th time in October.

[mrs slocombe]

Eddy Merckx (Belgium) shares his five win record of the Tour de France with three other famous cyclists. Miguel Indurain (Spain) won in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995; Bernard Hinault (France) won in 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982 and 1985; and Jacques Anquetil (France) won in 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964.

[desertcry]

Lance is a very special person. Nature dealt him a death blow(for most ordinary man), and survive. Then went on to dominate the worlds most physicaly , and mentaly demanding sport. It's simply amazing.

[desertcry]

Probably equally important is his lung capacity is extraordinary.

[Benrand]

I remember reading Miguel Indurain's resting rate was 32...that guy was a machine.