Lance Armstrong

[Pego]

Lance Armstrong has just won Le Tour de France. Let's congratulate this remarkable athlete.

[MJD]

Re: Lance Armstrong

>Lance Armstrong has just won Le Tour de France.
>Let's congratulate this remarkable athlete.


I wonder what the problems are that he keeps alluding to.

[bhall]

Re: Lance Armstrong

Bad back from all the stuff I've heard and read. Still speculation but based on the evidence (he climbed out of the saddle most of the mountain stages, which is not his climbing style) it's probably a decent bet.

[tafnut]

Re: Lance Armstrong

How silly is that? There IS another stage tomorrow, Sunday - 94 miles!. If Lance falls off his bike, does everyone else have to stop and wait for him? Ullrich, his closest challenger, fell today!

[bhall]

Re: Lance Armstrong

He rides into Paris the winner. Tomorrow is a stage of pomp for the tour. Only the sprinters will be fighting it out. Only a fall would keep him from winning at the point and the way his team works for him I'd half expect Hincapie to tow Armstrong hom if that happened.

Some insight into the problems he's had. Not sure it's everything.

http://www.velonews.com/tour2003/detail ... 697.0.html

[MJD]

Re: Lance Armstrong

>How silly is that? There IS another stage
>tomorrow, Sunday - 94 miles!. If Lance falls off
>his bike, does everyone else have to stop and
>wait for him? Ullrich, his closest challenger,
>fell today!

That's what I used to say too when I first got hooked on this event in 85. I now know better. Watch it tomorrow. They will be sipping from champagne glasses en route tomorrow.

[tafnut]

Re: Lance Armstrong

So if Ullrich wanted to race the stage, everyone else would boo him? End it on Saturday if you're not going to compete!

[MJD]

Re: Lance Armstrong

>Some insight into the problems he's had. Not >sure it's everything.

I think it might be more. Most of that stuff has been floating around for a while. I even heard someone speculating about a recurrence of his BIG problem although he is already talking 6 in a row so hopefully it isn't that. My take on that is if JU can just devote himself to training for a whole year, it could be a race next year. Good thing we have that Armstrong exemption in the fine print of the guidelines.

[tafnut]

Re: Lance Armstrong

And rename it the 'almost tour de france'.

[MJD]

Re: Lance Armstrong

>So if Ullrich wanted to race the stage, everyone
>else would boo him? End it on Saturday if you're
>not going to compete!

The point is that resistance is futile. If Jan went out tomorrow and tried to win it, LA's entire team would be on him like a ton of bricks. The team time trial proved they are the strongest team and I don't even know if Jan's team is still all in. All that would happen is that Jan would lose his second place.

Re: Lance Armstrong

>My take on that is if JU can just
>devote himself to training for a whole year, it
>could be a race next year. Good thing we have
>that Armstrong exemption in the fine print of the
>guidelines.

If Hamilton can stay on his bike, he'll win next year.

[MJD]

Re: Lance Armstrong

There are those that complain about track coverage. Try this on for size. Any fan of the Tour who has been following it live on OLN can't tomorrow because CBS has the rights to Sunday's show and they will cram 7 days of action into a one hour show at 2pm eastern-several hours after the last stage is over. Take out 16 minutes of ads and that breaks down to just over 6 minutes per day for stages that are over 4 hours and OLN has anywhere from 2 to 3 hours live per day. That is ridiculous.

[KEL]

Re: Lance Armstrong

Ben,

I think you may have confused Lance's climbing style with someone else.
He has mastered the "dance style of riding", standing up on the pedals with a very high turn over rate. From some of the things I read, he has a very low level of lactate production and can maintain this high level of muscle activation better that almost anyone else. Ullich is the stay in the saddle and power the pedals, rider.
As to who might win next year, there are just to many variables to do anything but speculate. There are several riders capable of winning but the composition of the team, team tactics and handling, support, and need I mention the right combination of luck, is essential to wearing the "Yellow Jersey" on the podium in Paris.

[MJD]

Re: Lance Armstrong

>I think you may have confused Lance's
>climbing style with someone else.
He has
>mastered the "dance style of riding", standing
>up on the pedals with a very high turn over rate.

Got to go with Ben here. In years past, Lance has stayed seated with a high turnover
rate. He did dance once in a while but there was no question that he was out of the
saddle more this year than he has been in the past. His seated high turnover rate up hill
was always astonishing to me and we didn't see it much this year maybe for the
reason Ben mentioned.

[bhall]

Re: Lance Armstrong

You're right that Lance can crank the RPM, but he is not a dancer. Pantani is a dancer. Armstrong is a spinner. They get the same result. Go back and look at photos from Armstrong's mountain top wins. Unless he is just launching an attack (accelerating), he is seated. I hadn't really noticed it until Paul Sherwin and Phil Liggett were talking about the change in style from pre-Tour races to the Tour.

A great comparison between the styles is evident in the photo at http://www.cyclingnews.com/results/2000 ... t12r.shtml