He's winning already

Armstrong stamps authority on Tour Prologue

Lance Armstrong stamped his authority on the 2002 Tour de France with a brilliant ride around the tricky Luxembourg prologue course, says Cycling Weekly magazine

THE emphatic message that Tour champion Lance Armstrong (US Postal) delivered with each pedal stroke en route to victory in the seven-kilometer Tour de France prologue in Luxembourg was: I’m back, I’m on my way to yellow in Paris and I ’m stronger than ever.

Not since 1999 has the Texan taken the opening leg of the Tour, and he pulled off the 12th stage win of his career with considerable panache, not to mention a cool, calculating head.

Tearing down the first long descent in Luxembourg city center, the Texan was untroubled when he flashed through the intermediate checkpoint -- situated in the Rue Sostherne exactly halfway through -- four seconds back on the fastest time, set by Australian Bradley McGee (FdJeux.com).

What it meant LANCE Armstrong took his Luxembourg prologue preparation very seriously indeed, riding the course eight times on Saturday morning and then going round it another three times in the team car. Armstrong’s determination to hit the ground running has paid off brilliantly, giving him a major psychological advantage. After just seven kilometers of the 3,280 of this year’s Tour -- the shortest in recent history -- Armstrong has already tightened his hold on the race. “There’s a long way to go,” he insisted, but most fans have the feeling that wherever the Tour may take us this year, we have been there three times before. As for the rest of the favorites, Santiago Botero’s impressive fourth place confirms his steady progression towards being Colombia’s first serious Tour contender for over a decade, while none of the Spaniards made an impact. “We didn’t want to take risks,” ONCE directeur sportif Manolo Saiz insisted. -- Cycling Weekly

“We weren’t too worried,” Armstrong revealed afterwards. “We knew that the stage would be won and lost on the last climb.”

Sure enough, the American knew exactly how much strength to leave for the sapping final ascent that started on the winding Rue de Prague. The route only briefly leveled before steepening for an agonizing straight drag to the finish.

The proof that he had calculated exactly how to finish with the “petrol tank” marking empty was there for all to see when Armstrong shot across the line two seconds clear of the previous best, surprisingly set by veteran Laurent Jalabert (CSC), and into his 36th maillot jaune of the Tour.

Shades of ‘95

The prologue course through Luxembourg ’s old town would not have been out of place in a mountain bike race, with no less than 19 clearly defined corners, innumerable slight curves, cobbles, dangerous corners, and hairpin bends, as well as its fair share of tar and dirt.

As for the succession of climbs and the first ultra-fast descent, when it began to rain more than one observer recalled Chris Boardman’s 1995 prologue crash in Saint- Brieuc. Just as well it was only a shower.

“I saw on TV beforehand that the guys who were fastest halfway were all doing bad times at the finish, so Johan [Bruyneel, directeur sportif] gave me Santiago Botero’s times splits instead,” Armstrong explained.

“Fortunately,the rain stopped quickly so I could go all out.”

Kelme’s Colombian rider was a reliable reference point: the first to overtake Laszlo Bodrogi’s (Mapei) solid 9-21 at the line, Botero had also been six seconds down on McGee halfway through.

Botero, the runner-up to Britain’s David Millar (Cofidis) in the 2001 Vuelta prologue, had used the same tactic as Armstrong had planned to: hold back early on before going flat out on the climb.

It had been touch and go for the Kelme leader, though, as his back wheel blocked just minutes before starting. “I was so shaky I couldn’t find the start,” he said.

However, he overcame his pre-race nerves to go an impressive nine seconds clear of Bodrogi, clocking 9-12.

Others suffered badly on the climb -- including Millar --or were still getting over leader Christophe Moreau, last year’s prologue winner. This time the Frenchman could only take 40th, 24 seconds adrift of Armstrong.

Next to up the stakes was Lampre-Daikin’s Raimondas Rumsas, eight seconds back on McGee at halfway, but not for nothing a winner of a very similar time trial in the 2001 Tour of the Basque Country. The 29-year-old Lithuanian squeezed ahead of Botero by just one second, although there were still 15 riders left to finish.

Didier Rous, winner of the 2000 prologue in the Dauphiné Libéré, was the great French favorite, but the veteran Bonjour leader came a cropper on the first right-hander.

Forced to change bikes, he wobbled uneasily round the course, his morale in tatters, and finally finished 163rd.

It was left to Jalabert to provide the glory the French fans were hoping for. One of the few to equal McGee’s intermediate split, Jalabert tore across the finish in 9-10, a second faster than Rumsas, although the CSC leader immediately doused hopes that this was the start of an assault on the overall victory.

“I was really going for the win today because this was a course which suited me down to the ground,” the 2001 King of the Mountains said afterwards. “I haven’t raced well recently, so it’s especially satisfying.”

However, Jalabert’s dreams of returning to yellow for a third time in his 13-year career were set to be shattered.

Not by Millar, four seconds slower than the Frenchman. Even as Erik Zabel (Telekom), second last down the starting ramp, crossed the line in a time of 9-33, in the distance the motorcycle vehicles escorting Armstrong were already visible.

The American’s dark blue figure -- he had refused to wear yellow because he “preferred to wear time trial clothing that was already broken in” -- rapidly grew larger as he approached the line at a speed which just fell short of averaging 46kph.

Screaming across the line, the US Postal leader’s powerful performance on the climb had propelled him into yellow by two seconds, and the Tour knew its patron was back in form.

“I was going cross-eyed with the effort by the summit,” Armstrong said. “It was a great stage to win, complicated, technical, a real specialist’s course.”

It was also a great way to start the 2002 Tour de France.

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