K
Kerry
Guest
Jul. 25, 2005. 01:00 AM
MICHEL SPINGLER/AP
Before this year’s Tour, Lance Armstrong said the prime reason he was
retiring was to spend more time with his 3-year-old twin daughters Grace,
left, and Isabelle. His son Luke, 5, joined his sisters on the podium
yesterday for a special ceremony to honour the cyclist.
Lance VII crowned
King of cycling bids final adieu with kids on hand
Vinokourov wins historic Paris leg of Tour de France
IAN AUSTEN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
PARIS—The final day of this year's Tour de France unquestionably belonged
to Lance Armstrong, its seven-time champion.
But the future of the race may be the man who stepped up to the final day
podium as the winner of the 21st and final stage: Alexandre Vinokourov. The
Kazakh cyclist, who won a stage in the Alps earlier, spoiled the sprinters'
fun by escaping with less than three kilometres to go.
Armstrong's exceptional record of Tour wins, no one else has won more than
five, also brought an exceptional event to the awards ceremony.
Standing in front of a painted plywood yellow road that looked like a prop
from The Wizard of Oz, Armstrong was allowed to give a brief speech. It
was, at least in the organizers' memory, a first in Tour history.
He praised Ivan Basso, an Italian rider who finished second, and Jan
Ullrich, who won in 1997 when Armstrong was absent for cancer treatment but
has never been able to defeat the American. Armstrong also praised his
Discovery Channel team for having "absolutely the best program in the
world."
With his twin daughters, dressed in yellow, and his son beside him,
Armstrong also took one last shot at journalists and others who have
suggested that his Tour record, and other cycling feats, are mostly the
product of performance enhancing drugs.
"For people who don't believe in cycling — the cynics and the skeptics —
I'm sorry that you can't dream big and that you don't believe in miracles,"
Armstrong said. "Vive le Tour, forever."
As he did for the start of final stage of his first successful Tour in
1999, Armstrong and the rest of the field travelled to a suburb of Paris in
a high-speed train.
That earlier trip provided one of the few occasions when Armstrong appeared
anything but fearless. After being invited to have a turn operating the
locomotive, Armstrong momentarily balked when he saw that involved stepping
across a gap that exposed the rails flashing past at several hundred
kilometres an hour.
There was little to upset Armstrong yesterday as he headed into Paris to
become the Tour's champion of champions.
The drizzly weather early in the race made roads slick causing numerous
small accidents, including one in front of Armstrong which he avoided only
by coming to a complete stop.
Exactly how Armstrong will fill his retirement days isn't clear.
"It's not as if I want to sit around and be a fat slob now," Armstrong said
at a press conference on Saturday. He suggested that he may participate in
10-km runs, triathlons and cyclo-cross races (an event that mixes cycling
and running on off-road circuits) as an incentive to maintain his fitness.
In any case, Armstrong said he will now attempt to lower his public
profile, which seems a tall order given his relationship with the rock star
Sheryl Crow.
"For the next few years I need a period of peace," he said. "This job is
stressful and this event is stressful."
With Armstrong off to retirement, the question for cycling in general and
his Discovery Channel team in particular is who will succeed him.
Armstrong is a part-owner of Tailwind Sports, the company that owns his
team (like sports stadiums, cycling teams sell their naming rights).
While he didn't directly name any names about who will succeed him at the
team, Armstrong did mention a top qualification for the job.
"For the American public to stay interested in cycling and the Tour, they
need to have an American guy," he said.
Someone who fits that qualification is George Hincapie, the native of New
York and the only teammate of Armstrong's to have ridden with him in all of
his victorious Tours.
Hincapie was once known as a rider mostly suited for the flats, which
excluded him from becoming a Tour contender. But Armstrong has twice
suggested that Hincapie is a potential Tour winner after he unexpectedly
won one of the hardest mountain stages of this year's event.
Then again, in his speech on the Champs Elysées, Armstrong said that Basso
is "perhaps the future of the Tour de France."
After Basso's mother was diagnosed with cancer, he and Armstrong became
good friends.
And then there's Vinokourov.
During the tour, the Kazakh champion announced that he was quitting
Ullrich's T-Mobile team, largely because he was tired of playing second
fiddle to the affable German (Ullrich himself is returning next year).
Vinokourov's dramatic win yesterday was, in effect, a bit of showing off to
potential employers. While cycling has no Kazakh sponsors, Vinokourov has
been more or less adopted by France where he makes his home in
Saint-Etienne, the industrial town that hosted Saturday's time trial.
Whoever succeeds him, Armstrong will be taking it all in.
"I'll promise you one thing. I'll be parked in front of the TV watching the
Tour de France," he said. "The 2006 Tour de France is going to be very
interesting."
MICHEL SPINGLER/AP
Before this year’s Tour, Lance Armstrong said the prime reason he was
retiring was to spend more time with his 3-year-old twin daughters Grace,
left, and Isabelle. His son Luke, 5, joined his sisters on the podium
yesterday for a special ceremony to honour the cyclist.
Lance VII crowned
King of cycling bids final adieu with kids on hand
Vinokourov wins historic Paris leg of Tour de France
IAN AUSTEN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
PARIS—The final day of this year's Tour de France unquestionably belonged
to Lance Armstrong, its seven-time champion.
But the future of the race may be the man who stepped up to the final day
podium as the winner of the 21st and final stage: Alexandre Vinokourov. The
Kazakh cyclist, who won a stage in the Alps earlier, spoiled the sprinters'
fun by escaping with less than three kilometres to go.
Armstrong's exceptional record of Tour wins, no one else has won more than
five, also brought an exceptional event to the awards ceremony.
Standing in front of a painted plywood yellow road that looked like a prop
from The Wizard of Oz, Armstrong was allowed to give a brief speech. It
was, at least in the organizers' memory, a first in Tour history.
He praised Ivan Basso, an Italian rider who finished second, and Jan
Ullrich, who won in 1997 when Armstrong was absent for cancer treatment but
has never been able to defeat the American. Armstrong also praised his
Discovery Channel team for having "absolutely the best program in the
world."
With his twin daughters, dressed in yellow, and his son beside him,
Armstrong also took one last shot at journalists and others who have
suggested that his Tour record, and other cycling feats, are mostly the
product of performance enhancing drugs.
"For people who don't believe in cycling — the cynics and the skeptics —
I'm sorry that you can't dream big and that you don't believe in miracles,"
Armstrong said. "Vive le Tour, forever."
As he did for the start of final stage of his first successful Tour in
1999, Armstrong and the rest of the field travelled to a suburb of Paris in
a high-speed train.
That earlier trip provided one of the few occasions when Armstrong appeared
anything but fearless. After being invited to have a turn operating the
locomotive, Armstrong momentarily balked when he saw that involved stepping
across a gap that exposed the rails flashing past at several hundred
kilometres an hour.
There was little to upset Armstrong yesterday as he headed into Paris to
become the Tour's champion of champions.
The drizzly weather early in the race made roads slick causing numerous
small accidents, including one in front of Armstrong which he avoided only
by coming to a complete stop.
Exactly how Armstrong will fill his retirement days isn't clear.
"It's not as if I want to sit around and be a fat slob now," Armstrong said
at a press conference on Saturday. He suggested that he may participate in
10-km runs, triathlons and cyclo-cross races (an event that mixes cycling
and running on off-road circuits) as an incentive to maintain his fitness.
In any case, Armstrong said he will now attempt to lower his public
profile, which seems a tall order given his relationship with the rock star
Sheryl Crow.
"For the next few years I need a period of peace," he said. "This job is
stressful and this event is stressful."
With Armstrong off to retirement, the question for cycling in general and
his Discovery Channel team in particular is who will succeed him.
Armstrong is a part-owner of Tailwind Sports, the company that owns his
team (like sports stadiums, cycling teams sell their naming rights).
While he didn't directly name any names about who will succeed him at the
team, Armstrong did mention a top qualification for the job.
"For the American public to stay interested in cycling and the Tour, they
need to have an American guy," he said.
Someone who fits that qualification is George Hincapie, the native of New
York and the only teammate of Armstrong's to have ridden with him in all of
his victorious Tours.
Hincapie was once known as a rider mostly suited for the flats, which
excluded him from becoming a Tour contender. But Armstrong has twice
suggested that Hincapie is a potential Tour winner after he unexpectedly
won one of the hardest mountain stages of this year's event.
Then again, in his speech on the Champs Elysées, Armstrong said that Basso
is "perhaps the future of the Tour de France."
After Basso's mother was diagnosed with cancer, he and Armstrong became
good friends.
And then there's Vinokourov.
During the tour, the Kazakh champion announced that he was quitting
Ullrich's T-Mobile team, largely because he was tired of playing second
fiddle to the affable German (Ullrich himself is returning next year).
Vinokourov's dramatic win yesterday was, in effect, a bit of showing off to
potential employers. While cycling has no Kazakh sponsors, Vinokourov has
been more or less adopted by France where he makes his home in
Saint-Etienne, the industrial town that hosted Saturday's time trial.
Whoever succeeds him, Armstrong will be taking it all in.
"I'll promise you one thing. I'll be parked in front of the TV watching the
Tour de France," he said. "The 2006 Tour de France is going to be very
interesting."