6 days to go
Armstrong won today's stage which means he now holds the Yellow Jersey. The "now" was added for dramatic affect as it been quite some time since the Yellow Jersey strayed far from the Armstrong clan. And it was a good win for Lance today, coming in 40 seconds ahead of Mayo & Ullrich, and gaining more that 2 minutes on Vinkourov. So he is now 1:07 clear of Jan Ullrich in the overall standings and must be very pleased with his day's work.
Especially since he suffered a fall in the closing climb of today's stage. It seems that his brake lever got entangled in a spectator's bag but incredibly he stormed back after this mishap and won convincingly. At the end of the race he said "After the crash I had a big rush of adrenaline". So I wonder what was in that bag.
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| Not quite Aussie rules |
Some reports have picked up on the fact that Armstrong owes today's victory to brittle-boned compatriot Tyler Hamilton. Apparently, after the man in yellow came a cropper, Hamilton slowed down the pack to wait. With echoes of British Parliamentiary procedure, Hamilton cited some ancient tradition that when the yellow jersey has a problem you wait for him. Let me run through that again - they waited for him! Sportsmanship or collusion - I leave you to be the judge.
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| Kilted protester mars Stage 15 |
A lunatic protester in a kilt disrupted today's stage of the Tour de France by running up a mountain against the stream of cyclists speeding in the other direction. He was covered in white placards with bright yellow protests written all over them, and staggered erratically from one edge of the road to the other. A tragedy was only narrowly avoided.
In today's other tour news, Scot David Millar overslept after finishing yesterday's stage only hours before today's start. He was only half awake and still suffering from a streaming cold as he dashed up the hill to the start, tucking several (soiled) kleenex tissues about his person.
7:38:47 PM 
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