| | By Andrew Hood
ABC Sports Online
SAINT-NAZAIRE, France -- Lance Armstrong was hoping to celebrate the Fourth of
July in a big way: take the overall lead of the Tour de France and take time
out of his rivals who are aiming to dethrone him as Tour champion.
Winds of change blew through the Tour in Tuesday's team time trial, but not
quite in the direction Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service wanted. No
fireworks tonight, but the defending Tour champion knows the real
pyrotechnics come to the final victor July 23 in Paris.
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The ONCE team rides towards a Stage Four victory. |
Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team finished second in the 70-km team time
trial race behind the ONCE team. Frenchman Laurent Jalabert took the overall
lead in one of the key days of the 21-stage Tour.
"All in all, it was an OK day. The Tour de France will not be decided in the
team time trial," Armstrong said, now third overall, 24 seconds back. "I knew
it was going to be a critical day. When I saw the wind today I knew it was going to
be a critical day. All was not lost for us."
Winds up to 30 mph hammered team after team as they rode together in a race
against the clock. The wind was unforgiving, punishing the riders struggling
to stay with their teams. Only three teams finished with all nine riders
still together.
"It was the hardest day I've ever had in my career," said Stuart O'Grady of
the Credit Agricole team. "All I did was look at the wheel in front of me.
All I heard was my director yelling in the radio, change, change, change. The
bridge was hell."
Starting last as the top team in the team classification, the U.S. Postal team
was riding solidly less than a minute behind ONCE when they hit the Pont de
Saint-Nazaire, a 250-foot-high suspension bridge towering over the mouth of
the Loire River.
Every team struggled up the steep, arching bridge, but Postal fared worst
than others. Heavy gusts coming off the Atlantic Ocean blasted the team as
Armstrong accelerated up the steep climb on the bridge, splintering the nine
Postal riders. The team lost critical seconds as they struggled to keep it
together.
"The plan was to have two guys work very hard to the base of the bridge, then
have Armstrong lead the climb with seven guys. He didn't realize he was going
so fast and there was a bit of a panic there," said Johan Bruyneel, directeur
sportif for the U.S. Postal team. "It's normal that you can't have nine guys
all the same strength."
Back in the Tour for the first time since 1995, the team time trial is a
tough discipline where riders take turns working at the front of the group.
The time for the team is taken with the fifth rider crossing the line and
Postal only had six in their final group. Three U.S. Postal riders - Cedric
Vasseur, Steffan Kjaergaard and Benoit Joachim - finished about one minute
behind Armstrong after dropping off the pace at the bridge.
"Up until the bridge we were having a great race. We were turning well. The
wind was really a factor. We never felt comfortable. The wind was blowing us
all over the place," Armstrong said. "It was a very technical team time
trial. We never really got it together today because it was so windy."
U.S. Postal's Tyler Hamilton agreed. There was a slight panic and some
disorganization as Armstrong went hard up the steep incline.
" We had a few problems on the bridge. A few guys
dropped off. With the wind it was really difficult day. It was a little bit
disappointing to lose time to ONCE, but it could have been a lot worse. The
wind was very crazy. Easily someone could have overlapped the wheel and could
have crashed," said Hamilton, 10th overall at 55 seconds back. "It would have
been really nice to win on the Fourth of July. We're always super-motivated
to win, but second place isn't bad. It was so windy. The group split and a
small gap gets a little bigger. We lost about 25 seconds on the bridge."
In the end, ONCE was given a 20-second penalty after a rider received an
illegal shield from the wind from one of the team cars. Still, it wouldn't
have been enough for Armstrong to take the yellow jersey and Jalabert enjoyed
his return to the highest point in cycling.
"I have sacrificed everything for this. I have given up on the World Cup and
I have sacrificed my world ranking. I am so happy to be in the yellow
jersey," said Jalabert, fourth overall in the Tour in 1995. "My dream is to
be on the podium in Paris."
It's still a long way to Paris, but Armstrong took a giant step toward
repeating as champion. Although Armstrong didn't take the overall lead, he's
perfectly poised to make a run for the final victory. Five flat stages await
the 177 remaining racers until the first mountain stage in the Pyrenees on
Monday. The ONCE team will likely work to protect the lead, giving Armstrong
and the Postal riders another respite.
"Honestly, if somebody is looking to get to Paris, there couldn't be a
better team in the yellow jersey right now," Armstrong said about ONCE, led
by the charismatic Spaniard Manolo Saiz. "Their director loves to lead the
race and control the race so I'm sure they'll do that."
More importantly in Tuesday's stage, Armstrong took lots of time against key
rivals, the most important goal for the day. Armstrong moved 43 seconds ahead
of Jan Ullrich, a winner in 1997, and nearly four minutes ahead of Alex
Zulle, second overall last year behind Armstrong. Richard Virenque, Fernando
Escartin and Marco Pantani, all strong climbers who will threat in the
mountains, fell more than five minutes back.
"I'm more happy about taking time out of the climbers than losing 24 seconds
to Jalabert," Bruyneel said. "We took a lot of time on our rivals. That's
what we wanted to do. After four days of racing, it's pretty serious for
those guys to be so far back."
Ullrich, whose Telekom team finished third in the stage, said he is happy
with the result.
"I'm very satisfied with the result. I am only interested in Lance. I lost a
little bit of time to him, but that's what I expected. Our goal was to finish
within one minute of Postal, and we did. It's not the end of the world. Our
team worked well today," Ullrich said.
The other Americans fared well on their respective teams. Jonathan Vaughters
and Bobby Julich, both Coloradans on the Credit Agricole team, finished
fourth in the stage and moved up nicely in the overall standings. Mapei, with
Austin's Chann McRae and U.S. champion Fred Rodriguez, finished eighth. McRae
is now 51st overall at 3'57" back.
So far in the opening stages of the 87th Tour, Armstrong has barely missed
taking the overall lead. But as he's said since the race started Saturday,
it's not always a good thing to have the lead too early. The real race begins
in the mountains. Until then, Armstrong and the rest of the team can enjoy
the ride and let ONCE fight to keep the jersey.
The Tour continues Wednesday with a 202-km (128-mile) rolling stage across
Brittany from Vannes to Vitre.
Andrew Hood is a freelance writer based in Spain. This is his fifth Tour de France. | |
ALSO SEE
Jalabert takes Tour de France lead; Armstrong now 3rd
Stage Four results
AUDIO/VIDEO
 The ONCE team takes Tuesday's time trial.
avi: 1379 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Stage 4 course map
RealVideo: 28.8
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