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Tour de France, France

Post Race

25 July

The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap
Final Tour Wrap Up

Stages and Maps, The Dust Devil's Daily Wrap

I can't believe it's over! It's hard to top the Tour de France for stage racing excitement, and every year I face the same postpartum let-down the days following its ending.

Lance Armstrong. What can you say about this man? Right now, I don't think that most of us are really thinking about the history we have just witnessed. We are more concerned with his domination, retirement and who will replace him, etc, etc ...

But, seven Tours in a row!!?? I think in 10 and 20 years time we will all look back on the Armstrong era in much the way we look back on Merckx's, or Indurain's glory days.

Much has been said about comparing Armstrong to the all-time greats. Of all the other 5 time winners, Armstrong is the only one without a victory in any of the other Grand Tours. And, just think about this: Miguel Indurain took his 7 Grand Tour victories (5 Tours de France and 2 Giri d'Italia) in a span of just over 4 years! Armstrong has only one classic victory to his name (Clasica San Sebastian), which even Indurain can equal.

I don't want to get into comparing apples to oranges. Racing is different nowadays, and there's no use lamenting about how exciting it would be to see riders like Armstrong and Ullrich duking it out in Paris-Roubaix, or the Giro d'Italia or Giro di Lombardia. Riders nowadays can afford (financially) to base their whole season on their build-up to the Tour de France. Eddy Merckx once said that if he raced the way Armstrong does, with a medicine dropper, he would've won the Tour 20 times!

This Tour I think we saw a changed Armstrong. But only a little changed. He didn't look so aggressive as he has in the past. He looked strong and self assured, but he rode like a man possessed last year, hammering everybody out of sight at every opportunity he got. Perhaps he is a little more comfortable with himself, not needing to gobble up every win in sight, or chase down somebody like Filippo Simeoni just to prove a point. And by gosh, he even let 2 of his teammates take stage wins! That definitely would not have happened in the previous six Tours. And we saw him yucking it up for the TV cameras on some transition stages. I've never seen that before.

I think I underestimated Ullrich. When Armstrong passed him in the opening TT, I thought that was the psychological blow that would destroy him. But, he never gave in. He fought and clawed his way back up the GC the entire three weeks and found himself 3rd by the time they reached Paris. Like I've said before, in some ways I think Ullrich is mentally stronger than Armstrong. Do you think Armstrong would have the same resilience that Ullrich has shown? I would bet that if LA would've been beat last year he would've retired. We'll never know, it's just my opinion. It really is a huge sporting achievement, to be knocked down so many times like Ulle has and pick yourself up and try again. He gets my vote for most courageous rider!

Ivan Basso showed another side of himself that I did not think he had. He showed he could attack! Not in the violent style that leaves everybody for dead like Armstrong has shown, but he stretched things out pretty well in the Pyrenees. And his TT skills are good enough that he can limit his losses.

Vinokourov dazzled and surprised us all like I thought he would. One bad day on Courchevel dropped him out of GC hopes in a fell swoop. But, the thing about him that is so amazing was the way he clawed from 16th up the GC by constantly fighting. And he ended up with 5th place! Amazing! He may never win the Tour, but he is definitely one of the most exciting riders in the entire peloton to watch in DD's humble opinion!

At any rate, we've got a wide open race next year. I would have to lay my money on Ivan Basso. He has the climbing prowess to outdo Ullrich, unless it was a time trial heavy course. As much as I hate to say it for poor Jan, I think he may have a second place next year. And I can't really see Vino finding himself a team that could help him win. He's getting a bit long in the tooth so his opportunities are numbered. We've got a long way to go before the 2006 Tour de France gets going though.

Thanks for reading the Dust Devil's daily wrap.
- The Dust Devil