BiciRace.com

• News
• Races
• Photos
• Interviews
• Inside Scoop
• Gear & Gadgets

Tour de France, France

Stage 11, Courchevel - Briançon, 173K

13 July

The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
The Stone Cold Assassin Comes Good

Stages and Maps, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap

The GC didn't shake up much today in spite of stage 11 being one of the feared stages of this year's Tour.

In an attack that could only be described as "epic", Vinokourov, AKA "The Stone Cold Assassin", and Botero (teammates just last year at T-Mobile) shook off their breakaway companions and stayed away. Vino did get the stage win, but only managed to pull back 1'35" of his deficit. He will pay a heavy price for a break of this caliber. I guess it's all he can do after getting shelled yesterday on the climb to Courchevel. Now all he has to do is do is repeat this feat 5 more times and he'll be in the maillot jaune.

As predicted, the Disco dancers did the hustle all the way, setting an infernal pace that nobody could get around. Hincapie doing his best Tony Manero impression (gold chains dangling) leading his team leader into the finish.

OK, so where does that put us in the grand scheme of the 2005 Tour de France?

Well the way I see it, it looks like it will be another race for second. Rasmussen (Rabobank) has definitely come out of nowhere to be sitting in second place at this point. On the one hand 38 seconds is not much, if Armstrong has one bad day, the way Rasmussen is climbing he could pull that back. On the other hand, Armstrong could realistically take 4 minutes or more out of Rasmussen in the final TT. The svelt Dane is not a renowned man against the clock.

I was hoping everybody was going to be a little more aggressively attacking Armstrong. But it seems that the Texas Tornado has got everybody bullied into merely trying to follow his wheel. And that's a tall order for most!

It makes the DD wonder, Discovery has done the same formula every year that Armstrong has won the Tour:
» Build a united team around one undisputed leader
» Week-long recon missions on the Alpine and Pyrenean climbs
» Set a murderous tempo on the climbs all day to discourage breakaways and shedding rivals. Thus delivering Armstrong to the foot of the final climb fresh as a daisy.
» To my knowledge nobody on the Armstrong team has ever been spotted in a breakaway during the Tour de France (except Armstrong himself). No wasteful energy.

Certainly the other teams must be taking note of this approach. Why doesn't anybody else try to imitate it? T-Mobile and CSC (to name 2 examples) have the talent and the smarts to build a team that could mimic Discovery Channel. Yet you still see them say that they have dual leadership so they can "keep their options open". At the same time sending riders in breakaways all day, wasting energy right and left. I do not understand.

I suppose the one big difference is in the quality of team leadership itself. Lance Armstrong is so driven to win that he will do whatever it takes. He is hungrier than the average rider. Ullrich and Basso being undeniably talented, don't have the same lust for blood. And that trickles down to the workers. The Discovery boys don't have any doubt that if they ride out of their skin for Armstrong, he will win. I'd be willing to bet, there is not that same confidence in any other camp.

With Armstrong's retirement right around the corner, I was reflecting a bit the other day while stuck in French traffic. Thinking back to the days of the 1995 Tour, when he won the stage to Limoges. If you would've told me in 10 years time Armstrong would be bidding for his seventh Tour win (in a row!) I would've fell out of my chair laughing. According to history, there has never been more than 5 years between one 5-time Tour winner's last victory and the next 5-timer's first victory. Who will be the next 5-timer?
- The Dust Devil