| | By Andrew Hood
Special to ABC Sports Online
PARIS -- Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France last year with such certitude it sounds like it came straight out of a movie script.
It's a story many are now familiar with, how Armstrong came from a rough and tumble childhood, found purpose and fortune in cycling, then had it stolen away by cancer.
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Armstrong is planning an encore to last year's miraculous performance. |
Just to survive testicular cancer, which was first diagnosed in October 1996, would be enough to finish out the fairytale ending, but Armstrong never settles for the expected. He defied the odds and the skeptics and roared through the 1999 Tour, winning four stages en route to becoming the first American since Greg LeMond to win cycling's most important race.
After such a storybook ending, how can Armstrong even dare to top it? Well, Armstrong has just the answer -- win it again.
When the Tour starts Saturday in Futuroscope (ABC, 3 p.m. ET), the faux modern business park in central France, Armstrong enters as the hands down favorite. The sequel could be better than the original.
While Armstrong's stab at winning a second Tour has none of the melodrama of a comeback from cancer, the race could be a lot more exciting.
This year, everyone will be shooting for Armstrong and he knows it. It's always harder to win a second Tour than to win a first.
Many skeptics say Armstrong had it easy last year. Few expected him to be as strong as he was following his comeback from cancer. He was aided by a crash in the opening week of the race that split the group and left several key challengers more than six minutes behind Armstrong.
Plus, several top riders were missing, including 1998 champion Marco Pantani, 1997 champion Jan Ullrich, and former world No. 1 Laurent Jalabert.
All are expected to start this year's Tour.
Armstrong says he and a beefed up U.S. Postal Service team are ready for any and all challengers.
"Ullrich, Pantani, Jalabert, everybody will be there, so it should be a classic," he says. "There's a little bit more pressure. The other favorites have to carry the race, too. We did a lot of work last year in the Tour. I don't expect we have to do any more work than that."
Every Tour de France is different and this year's course will make for an exciting race.
Tour 2000 features 21 stages, and at 3,630 kilometers (2,250 miles), it's slightly shorter than last year's race. There are five mountain stages, one more than last year, including three straight in the Alps and three summit finishes. Armstrong proved his mettle in the mountains last year, winning at the climb up to Sestieres in Italy. But the Alps come in the second half of the Tour, instead of the opening week like last year.
With an epic climb up Mont Ventoux in stage 12, Armstrong faces four tough mountain stages over five days. In stage 14, racers hit the Col d'Izoard, one of cycling's mythical high passes. The next day, the peloton tackles five passes with a summit finish at Courchevel. Stage 16 into Morzine will weed out any pretenders in the bunch.
Another key difference from last year's Tour is the return of the team time trial. This discipline -- when an entire team rides together in a race against the clock -- is back at the Tour for the first time since 1995. Coming early in the Tour this year at stage four, the team time trial could actually help climbers against strong time trialists such as Armstrong, Ullrich and Alex Zulle because with the assistance of their team, the lithe climbers won't be losing as much time.
The Tour, more than any race, always comes down to the strongest rider. Armstrong's preparation for his Tour defense has been right on target. Quiet throughout much of the spring, Armstrong came into form just in time for the July 1 Tour start.
After a good performance in the Classiques des Alpes in early June, Armstrong helped teammate Tyler Hamilton win the Critèrium du Dauphinè Libèrè race. Armstrong won the time trial during the race and held the leader's jersey before helping Hamilton, who in turn will be helping Armstrong during the Tour, take his most important win in his career.
Armstrong felt so fit he skipped his final preparation race -- Route de Sud -- and instead returned to his home in Nice, France to train and spend time with his family.
Rarely are sequels as good as the original, but all the ingredients are in place to make this Tour the blockbuster hit of the summer.
The fireworks start Saturday. Do you have your seat yet?
Andrew Hood is a freelance writer based in Spain. This will be his fifth Tour de France.
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