Lance Armstrong's Bid For Coveted Sixth Tour de France Foiled
By Joe King, Dullard Trite, and Richard Longwood
Special to ESPN, MTV, MIT, and CYCLINGNEWS.COM
PARIS, FRANCE -- Heading into the final stages of the 2004 Tour de France,
Lance Armstrong looked destined to be in clear and eternal glory. Another
victory and he would create a new cycling pantheon. But long shot Tyler
Hamilton was coming on steadily, and suddenly Lance began to look weary.
There would be no six-time Tour de France champion.
Even when he still was in front by minutes, Johan Bruyneel, Lance
Armstrong's coach, knew he was in trouble. "When I looked back and saw the
way Tyler Hamilton was coming at us, yeah, I thought we were going to get
beat," Bruyneel said.
Tyler Hamilton, coached by Urs Freuler, had Lance Armstrong in his sights,
and 7 stages from the last stage, Urs Freuler's stallion went by the five
time Tour de France champion en route to a commanding victory before a crowd
of millions, the largest ever to see a sporting event in France. For the
first time in five years, Lance Armstrong didn't win.
Freuler and the other Phonak managers Alvaro Pino, Jacques Michaud, and René
Savary and Tyler's parents had mixed emotions after last year's situation
when Tyler emerged from obscurity last July to become Massachusetts'
favorite son and an international celebrity.
As Tyler Hamilton and Lance Armstrong galloped out, Freuler got on Bruyneel'
s radio frequency and told him, "Better luck next time jackass! You were a
fool for letting your pretty boy do all those OLN segments and all those
other car commercials." It surprised Bruyneel, who undoubtedly was in an
agitated state.
"He said he was sorry," Bruyneel said. "I said, 'What are you going to do?
That's bike racing.'"
Freuler was thrilled over finally beating his jinx race and completing his
personal goal. Besides winning 15 stages of the Giro d'Italia, 3 stages of
the Tour de France, 5 stages of the Tour de Romandie, 9 stages of the Tour
de Suisse, Urs Freuler also took 10 World Track titles. After not making
the podium last year at the Tour de France, the Swiss native not only won
this year's Tour de France but also did it without Tyler using any
performance enhancing drugs. Still, he felt for those who yearned for a
Lance victory.
"What can I say?" Freuler said. "I feel great, the jihad worked and it was
an emotional thing. It's sad because Lance was great for racing."
Emma O'Reilly, Ireland's leading big mouth, was weepy and overjoyed. Her
feelings were confusing. "This means so much to me," she said.
"This is a homebred champion. My husband [Mr. Hamilton, Tyler's father] is
the one who decided that we breed and produce this year's Tour de France
champion. But we do feel bad for Lance (wink, wink). It's bittersweet. We
were rooting for Lance (wink, wink). We love Lance. I think Lance has done
more for the racing community and people who love cycling."
Love hurts, and Lance went down because he was judged badly by David Walsh
and Pierre Ballester at the end of a glorious ride through France.
Bruyneel, the only Belgian coach Lance has ever known, asked far too much of
him in the most grueling race Lance will ever run.
Lance never got a breather in an exhausting stage to the top of Plateau de
Beille. He was 30 seconds behind at the first feed zone and two minutes
back at the base of the last climb while always battling just to stay in the
peloton. His pharmacist was worried a long way out, and he looked more
angry than disappointed seconds after Tyler Hamilton crossed the finish line
to win the stage.
"We just weren't able to manage his hematocrit," Bruyneel said minutes
later. "You can't win a 23 day stage race without getting that stabilized.
I knew when we didn't win Plateau de Beille that we were in a little
trouble. He just wasn't stabilized the way he was in the previous two
stages."
After taking constant pressure from Roberto Heras and Oscar Sevilla while
chasing Jan Ullrich and Iban Mayo, Lance Armstrong took the early lead on
the L'Alpe d'Huez stage by 10 seconds half way to the top. Bruyneel had him
kick for home early -- too early -- and opened a 20 second lead 6 kilometers
from the finish. Heras, Sevilla, Mayo and Ullrich were done, but Tyler
Hamilton proved to have the biggest schlong of the day and won big time.
The next day, Freuler let Tyler Hamilton move comfortably to the finish in
Le Grand Bornand while Lance took the heat down the backstretch, and
although Tyler was far back, Freuler still wasn't worried. Tyler Hamilton
was on cruise control, and Lance wasn't home free.
"At the top of the Col de la Madeleine, I still thought we had a good shot,"
Bruyneel said, "but then I looked over and saw Tyler Hamilton smoking a
cigarette and thought we might be in trouble."
He was. Tyler Hamilton ground Lance down and took the lead for good, and
Lance had nothing left to throw at him. Tyler Hamilton lost only 12 seconds
in the descent into the Le Grand Bornand finish while Lance Armstrong rode
at 60 kilometers per hour in the last 2 kilometers, way too fast to recover
for the next day.
Millions of American people were seriously bummed out because Lance got beat
in Paris. Jay Leno had called to ask if Lance would come to California to
appear on his show. President Bush issued an open invitation for Lance to
visit the Rose Garden. One woman wrote to Bruyneel and asked if she could
have a nude photo shoot taken with Lance. All were turned down.
"It's unbelievable how it's taken off," Bruyneel said Friday. "It's just
kind of snowballed. It seems like the story is flowing across the country
and everyone has kind of adopted him as the feel-good story and their
favorite Texan."
"I think the timing has a lot to do with it. There are so many bad things
going on in the world," Jonathan Vaughters of Boulder said when he came to
the Paris finish of the Tour de France. "People get tired of looking at the
bad things on the front page and they skip to the sports page. They get to
read a feel-good story about a little drug using Texas cyclist who's doing
swell."
"It has been great for the drug companies, and hopefully it continues."
Unfortunately for Lance and his connections, it didn't.
Bruyneel tried to accentuate the positive while taking the pain with class
and grace. While Freuler was being interviewed after the race, Bruyneel
congratulated him with a crushing Belgian handshake.
"Well, it's tough," Bruyneel said. "We had a shot to make big history here.
We didn't do it. We've had a great year. I'm not going to put my head
down. I'm proud of the whole team and everybody needs to be happy. They
don't need to be sad."
Too bad it didn't feel that way Sunday night in Paris, and that wouldn't
change Monday morning.
"David Off" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:
[email protected]...
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/cycling/3858759.stm
>
> Lance Armstrong will fail to become the first man to win six Tours de
> France, according to 1987 winner Stephen Roche. Armstrong is the race
> favourite in 2004, but Irishman Roche believes 1997 Tour winner Jan
> Ullrich will halt the Texan's historic bid.
>
> "I would be really surprised if Armstrong won," Roche told BBC Sport.
>
> "He may be mentally tougher than he's ever been and tactically more
> astute, but I don't believe he's the same rider physically anymore."
>
> He added: "If I were to pick it, I'd go Ullrich first, Tyler Hamilton
> second and Armstrong third." Armstrong does not appear to be at his best
> going into the 2004 race.
>
> He was outridden by Iban Mayo and Hamilton on the Dauphine Libere and
> looked as though he was struggling at crucial times. In contrast,
> Ullrich appears to be in good shape, close to the sort of form that won
> him the race seven years ago.
>
> And Roche believes the German has even more "bite" after his runner-up
> spot 12 months ago. "People have been talking about him carrying too
> much weight and not looking as sharp in races as before, but that's
> nonsense," said Roche.
>
> "He looked better and better in his final warm-up - the Tour of
> Switzerland - and I think he's hitting top form at exactly the right
time."
>
> Armstrong endured his toughest Tour in 2003.
>
> Although he won - matching the achievements of five-time champions
> Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain - he
> lacked the invincibility of previous seasons.
>
> He suffered from malnutrition and dehydration, fell on the final ascent
> on stage 15, and was repeatedly attacked by his rivals. "Last year, the
> cracks started to show," said Roche. "Those cracks are only going to get
> wider."
]