Le Tour de Lance

[Flubber]

Wow-- Armstrong has passed Basso at the final timecheck and will have a full 3 minutes on everyone in the GC by the end of the day

ALPE D'HUEZ (entrée) - km 12.5 157 riders
Last rider : 061 BASSO (ITA, CSC) - 6. at 02' 00"
1- 001 ARMSTRONG (USA, USP) 00:33:41
2- 011 ULLRICH (GER, TMO) 00:34:37 at 56"
3- 017 KLÖDEN (GER, TMO) 00:35:12 at 01' 31"
4- 002 AZEVEDO (POR, USP) 00:35:13 at 01' 32"
5- 014 GUERINI (ITA, TMO) 00:35:38 at 01' 57"

[Flubber]

While apparently only 156 riders have finished, all the contenders appears on this cut and paste


L'ALPE D'HUEZ - km 15.5 156 riders
Last rider : 061 BASSO (ITA, CSC) - 8. at 02' 22"
1- 001 ARMSTRONG (USA, USP) 00:39:41.450
2- 011 ULLRICH (GER, TMO) 00:40:42.480 at 01' 01"
3- 017 KLÖDEN (GER, TMO) 00:41:22.990 at 01' 41"
4- 002 AZEVEDO (POR, USP) 00:41:26.530 at 01' 45"
5- 023 GONZALEZ (ESP, PHO) 00:41:52.323 at 02' 10"



So Basso loses 2:22 but thats not enough as he will still maintain a reasonable lead on Kloden. Ullrich and Azevedo have passed Mancebo in the GC. The overall standings are as follows:


1. Lance Armstrong (USP) 2,802.1km in 67h53'24" (41.265km/h)
2. Ivan Basso (CSC) at 3'48"
3. Andreas Kloden (TMO) at 5'03"
4. Jan Ullrich (TMO) at 7'55"
5. Jose Azevedo (USP) at 9'19"
6. Francisco Mancebo (IBB) at 9'20"
7. Georg Totschnig (GST) at 11'34"
8. Carlos Sastre (CSC) at 13'52"
9. Pietro Caucchioli (ALB) 14'08"
10. Levi Leipheimer (RAB) at 15'04"


It now appears impossible that anyone can catch Armstrong unless he crashes or bonks.There are only four stages left

Tomorrow-- hard mountain stage that includes the Col de Madeline
Friday-- a rolling stage with nothing harder than a second category climb
Saturday- a flat time trial
Sunday -- the procession to Paris

eally tomorrow is the only chance to get serious time on anyone, so it may be last ditch effort time-- But Armstrong can also see that this is the last big effort and he will know that his team can drag him along on the flatter stage on Friday.

Its not over yet but we would need some strange things to happen for Armstrong to NOT win this Tour

[pchang]

I wasn't sure it was over before, but now it is.

[alva]

A good chance Basso will break over the next few days. I see Ullrich finishing second on sunday.

[Paul]

I'm sure the Germans will try to get Basso out of second place tomorrow and/or on Saturday. While they probably realise that they won't win the tour, they'll want Ullrich and Klöden in second and third place.

[pchang]

I think the German's best chance to put time on Basso is the time trial.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by pchang
I think the German's best chance to put time on Basso is the time trial.

Total agreement here.

[Mercator]

I'm pretty sure they'll do much better than Basso in the time trial, but I'm not sure if Ullrich could beat him by more than 4 minutes.

I'm hoping tomorrow will be a grueling battle.

[mrmitchell]

Did Lance win yet?

[Traianvs]

This comes hardly as a surprise right.
We knew Armstrong was going to win this climb, Ullrich was going close in on the others and that Basso was going to lose a few minutes.



This is somewhat like Schumacher and F1

[pchang]

If you were that sure, how come you haven't made a killing at the sports books?

[Flubber]

It appears that they are all on the final mountain of todays's stage and all the leaders are still together. There will not likely be any major cahanges in the time gaps affecting the top 5--

Virenque and Sastre are off the front again but thats as usual and has no effect on the GC

[Flubber]

Same old same old

Armstrong wins with all the usual suspects in close attendance


1 001 ARMSTRONG Lance USA USP in 6h 11' 52"
2 017 KLÖDEN Andréas GER TMO at 00' 00"
3 011 ULLRICH Jan GER TMO at 00' 01"
4 061 BASSO Ivan ITA CSC at 00' 01"
5 006 LANDIS Floyd USA USP at 00' 13"
6 185 MERCKX Axel BEL LOT at 01' 01"
7 151 LEIPHEIMER Levi USA RAB at 01' 01"
8 067 SASTRE Carlos ESP CSC at 01' 02"
9 158 RASMUSSEN Mickael DEN RAB at 01' 02"
10 081 TOTSCHNIG Georg AUT GST at 01' 02"
11 002 AZEVEDO José POR USP at 01' 02

[Flubber]

The overall is unlikely to change tomorrow so that leaves the time trial.


The overall standings are as follows

1 001 ARMSTRONG Lance USA USP in 74h 04' 56"
2 061 BASSO Ivan ITA CSC at 04' 09"
3 017 KLÖDEN Andréas GER TMO at 05' 11"
4 011 ULLRICH Jan GER TMO at 08' 08"
5 002 AZEVEDO José POR USP at 10' 41"

The big question is whether Basso will be able to maintain a top 3 finish-- Ullrich is a great time trialist and Kloden is seen as stronger than Basso as well-- Thats the big story since its unlikely that anyone can catch Armstrong-- even a flat on the time trial wouldn't prevent a victory-- The only thing that can prevent an Armstrong win is a major debilitating crash

[Spiffor]

Wow, there is only one second separating the four first riders. Quite impressive, for a 6 hours long run