A chink in the armor?

Botero stuns Armstrong in individual time trial

The first long time trial of the Tour saw a surprise defeat of Lance Armstrong by underdog Santiago Botero, reports Cycling Weekly magazine, but is the imperious Texan actually vulnerable, or just biding his time?

FOR the first time since he began his crushing domination of the Tour in 1999, Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service) was forced to accept defeat in a long time trial stage, won by Santiago Botero (Kelme-Costa Blanca) of Colombia by an 11-second margin over the Texan.

As if that result was not intriguing enough, Armstrong was also unable to take the maillot jaune from Basque Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (ONCE-Eroski), just eight seconds slower than the second-placed Texan on the 52-kilometer race against the clock between Lanester and Lorient.

If Colombia will be celebrating Botero’s rise and rise towards seriously contending the Tour, British fans were equally delighted to see Scot David Millar (Cofidis) return to the white jersey which he had briefly held earlier on in the race, thanks to an excellent seventh place, just 50 seconds down on Botero.

"I’m delighted, the white jersey is going to be an objective for now," Millar revealed. "I went all out from the gun, just hammered it. I’m really satisfied with how it’s gone today."

Great expectations

What it meant JUST as we were getting used to the idea of Armstrong streaking to a fourth win with only symbolic opposition, for now at least, the race remains open. "It’s a new start to the Tour and both me and Joseba [Beloki] are highly optimistic," Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano announced in the race leader’s press confidence. "OK, we don’t know how Armstrong will react now in the mountains and he’s still the number one by a long shot, but at least for the fans this will make the race much more interesting." ONCE-Eroski will not be the only ones thinking that, if Armstrong has lost ground in the time trials, then maybe the same can happen in the Pyrenees as well. It’s certainly possible, and more so than it has been for the last four years. But there’s also the theory that Armstrong has looked hard at the route of the Tour, realized that it can be won or lost in the Alps and the third week, and has come to the Tour slightly below his best condition in order to peak come the Ventoux. Finally, David Millar’s regaining of the best young rider’s white jersey is a great success for the Scot, and one which hopefully will motivate him in his quest for a stage win in this year’s race.

But the main focus of the day was on Lance Armstrong and his failure to live up to expectations, which have, admittedly, risen each year he has won. A defeat had to come at some point for sure, but this was not in anybody’s predictions by any means.

Bizarrely enough, the setting for the first major chink to appear in Armstrong’s armor since 1999 came on a course that suited the American -- made for real power riders, all rolling hills for the first half, followed by long straights on an exposed coastline. The strong breeze -- first a tailwind, then a powerful cross-head -- had never troubled the Texan in the past. And the 30-year-old looked wholly convincing as he stormed up the first slight rise through the coastal resort of Lanester, flailing away at the pedals with his usual high-speed style, riding the conventional time trial bike with disc rear wheel, and the angled time trial helmet he has used in every race against the clock since 1999. He even had his wife, Kristin, sitting next to U.S. Postal directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel in the team car behind.

But something wasn’t quite clicking. After 19.5 kilometers of the course which rolled through tiny woods and past sweetcorn fields (not to mention a huge Union Jack and David Millar signs in a clearing early on), the Texan was four seconds down on Santiago Botero and six seconds behind early stage leader Serguei Gonchar (Fassa Bortolo), the 2000 world time trial champion.

The omens were not good either: Botero had defeated Armstrong by 42 seconds in a time trial at the Dauphiné Libéré, although the previous day he had lost nearly a quarter of an hour on the Ventoux. Could the Colombian succeed?

Bareheaded and sweating slightly in the bright sunshine, the 2000 King of the Mountains had roared across the line in a time of 1-02-18, the only rider to average over 50 kilometers an hour. But he had rolled down the starting ramp nearly an hour before Armstrong and, although nobody had been able to match his time since then, nobody had been able to match the Texan for the last four years of the Tour, either.

"I didn’t have any time references because I started so much earlier than the other favorites," Botero revealed later."So what I did was simply blast it as hard as I could and hope I could hold on to the finish. It worked out."

The next time check, halfway along the coastline section at the summit of a slight rise, revealed a dead heat between the two. As Gonchar faded, Botero was less than half a second faster than the Texan.

Slowly but surely,the scales tipped in favor of the Colombian. Armstrong was still looking as solid as ever, but the finishing gantry clock mercilessly revealed that he had in fact slowed by 10 seconds in the final section.

The result was Botero had inflicted a stinging defeat on the Texan, who said afterwards: "I didn’t have a good day. Specialists like Botero and Honchar are sometimes stronger than you." But he was probably not counting on Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano failing to crack as well.

Galdeano keeps yellow

The Basque seemed to be suffering badly towards the finish, his jersey partly unzipped and mouth wide open, but, in fact, he was a second up on the Texan at the first checkpoint, and that early powerful start enabled him to remain in contact with the American’s times, finishing fourth, seven seconds slower than Armstrong and one adrift of Gonchar.

"I knew I could do a good time trial,but you don’t think about staying that close to Armstrong until it actually happens," he revealed. "Either he’s not the rider he was the last year, or we’ve got better. Either way, things have changed in the Tour."

It would be hard to disagree.

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