How To Hold Off Lance Armstrong In The Mountains

Lance Armstrong has won two straight Tour de France titles largely on his strength in the race's brutal mountain stages. As of Monday he was 23rd in this year's Tour, with the Alps and Pyrenees awaiting him. Here are tactics that rivals might want to try to keep the yellow jersey off his back.

1. Separate him from his team
By sending a second-tier rider on an early breakaway, an opposing team can force Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service mates to chase. Once they tire and fall back, Armstrong will be vulnerable to an attacking team's No. 1 rider. Says Sean Petty, a director of USA Cycling, "Lance doesn't want to find himself on the base of the final climb alone."

2. Attack multiple times late in a stage
Because energy is at such a premium in the mountains, Armstrong must pick carefully which attacks to counter and which to let go. "If he counters everything," says Petty, "eventually an attack will slip by him."

3. Go early
A tactic favored by five-time champion Bernard Hinault, who would break away near the beginning of a mountain stage. The peloton, or main pack, would let him go, thinking Hinault couldn't last 100 kilometers in the mountains. Often he'd prove them wrong. "It's a classic tactic but a huge risk," says Andy Hampsten, who rode in eight Tours and finished fourth twice. "You have to be really strong to do it."

3. Steal his food
In his two Tour wins Armstrong lost significant time to key rivals in just one mountain stage, when he didn't eat enough and bonked on the final climb. His greatest enemy, then, may be himself. "If he's on his form," Petty says, "he could ride away no matter what the tactics are."