Jim's Pond - Exploring the Universe of Ideas
"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk. It is as when a conflagration has broken out in a great city, and no man knows what is safe, or where it will end." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Saturday, July 26, 2003

Le Tour

Despite the obvious limitations of the French, they still put on the best cycling event in the world. I've followed along for many years now, ever since Greg LeMond first captured my imagination by winning the event, albeit on a non-USA team. I may be a homer, but I do have my limitations.

You've got to love the Armstrong story, also. Recovered cancer patient. Four-time Tour de France winner. Racing in the centennial event to tie Indurain for most consecutive wins (five). That and Ullrich making a race out of it this year. That set up a showdown for today's time trials. Fortunately, France is several (I believe 7) time zones ahead of me, so when I got up this morning the showdown had been decided.

I was able to go right to Cycling News to get all of the detail. There is even a "live" narrative giving a flavor of how the time trial progressed and a results page.

The short version. Armstrong rode the course prior to today's race. Ullrich watched a video. It rained very hard. Ullrich fell. Armstrong picked up some valuable seconds. What made it interesting is that Ullrich defeated Armstrong by 96 seconds in an earlier time trial. So it was by no means a foregone conclusion that Armstrong would prevail. Oh, and for stage 19 Armstrong and Ullrich finished 3rd and 4th.

So, as the commentators say, barring catastrophe tomorrow Armstrong will win his fifth straight Tour. Oh, and he wouldn't be there without his team. Go Postal........
11:33:24 AM    comment []






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