Waiting game

Armstrong happy to bide his time in mountains

BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) -- Lance Armstrong says he has no plans to launch a major attack on the early mountain stages of the Tour de France on Thursday.

The American told Reuters it was still too soon to make any predictions about him winning a fourth Tour but also smiled about notions that he may be past his best.

"I think I'll be careful on the first day in the mountains," Armstrong said.

"In these first two mountain stages we'll learn a lot about who can win the Tour de France but I don't have a plan to attack. I'm just going to go along and see what happens."

He added: "We're not going backwards but we don't have the momentum yet. Hopefully, it'll come soon. I like a buzz like that."

Armstrong even contemplated losing time. "I might get dropped. I might be five minutes behind. I might!" he said, possibly bluffing.

"It could get complicated. It's close now and nothing is shook out. The level of field seems to be better this year."

In 2001, Armstrong had pretended to suffer before launching an attack on the climb to L'Alpe d'Huez and later admitted it was a bluff.

He may be following a similar tactic for the first mountain stage but he made it clear that he was not bluffing over his ride in the individual time trial on Monday when he was second.

"One was a bluff and one wasn't," Armstrong said. "I have lots of questions about my performance in the time trial. Others might look at it as chink in my armour, maybe as a guy who is past his prime."

Tour leader Igor Gonzalez Galdeano suggested that either the other riders had improved or Armstrong had got worse.

But the champion smiled: "I just would not make that judgement until the race is over."

Then he added: "The Once team talked like that before the time trial. Maybe they feel they've got a better chance now. And maybe they're right. Maybe I'm over the hill. Maybe."

After Tuesday's rest day, Wednesday's 10th stage was taking the riders 147 km from Bazas to Pau ahead of the mountain tests.

 

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