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Head for the hills Armstrong must attack in Tour's mountain stagesPosted: Tuesday July 16, 2002 11:14 AMParis (Reuters) -- Since he began dominating the Tour de France in 1999, Lance Armstrong will have to attack in the mountain stages if he wants to win the race for a fourth time. In the last three events, the American has always won the first individual time trial stages, creating a commanding lead over his rivals and setting up a platform for overall victory. But in Monday's 52-km time trial he finished second, 11 seconds slower than Santiago Botero of Colombia, with most of his rivals not far behind. Armstrong is second in the overall standings, 26 seconds behind Spaniard Igor Gonzalez Galdeano who defended his leader's yellow jersey with a good fourth place in the time trial. Armstrong is still the favorite to win the Tour but he no longer appears to be as dominant as in the past, leaving many wondering what will happen in the decisive mountain stages in the second half of the race. As the headline in French sports newspaper L'Equipe said: "Le doute est permis" -- "doubts are allowed." After a night to get over the disappointment of not taking the leader's yellow jersey, Armstrong flew south Tuesday to Bordeaux during the first rest day of the three-week race. Just before being greeted by a scrum of television cameras and microphones in Bordeaux airport, he tried to look on the positive side of what had been a disappointing time trial. "The second half of the race, the next 10 days will be decisive. It's actually a little exciting knowing I have to attack if I want to win but there's still a long way to go, I'm not too worried," Armstrong said. Mixed feelings "I've got mixed feelings. I'm a still a little disappointed after yesterday's time trial but at the same time we're still in a good position. "If you compare how I'm placed compared to the other climbers, I've still got a good cushion on people like Andrei Kivilev, Joseba Beloki and Oscar Sevilla. So it's not completely catastrophic but it could have been better." Armstrong said he felt a little tired after the first nine stages raced across the flat roads of northern France. It has been a tough week for the Austin born Texan. He won the 7-km opening prologue time trial and his U.S. Postal Service team had a good team time trial on stage four but he lost 27 seconds to his rivals after being blocked by a crash on stage seven. "I think everybody is a little tired," Armstrong said. "The first week was hard. The racing was very aggressive you can see that by looking at the average speed. There were also a lot of crashes. I'd have preferred some harder stages earlier in the race because it would have settled things down. Instead it was very nervous all the time."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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