Stage 19--Ullrich falls

I think we all feel a bit let down. The exciting stage & exciting Tour wasn't supposed to end with a rider falling off his bike. That's exactly what happened to Jan Ullrich on the road to Nantes. That fall ended the big race prematurely; it clinched the win for Lance Armstrong.

Before any of the anti-Lance whiners ask why Lance wouldn't stop and wait for Ullrich, let's set the record straight. Armstrong was on pace to win the yellow jersey before Jan Ullrich slipped off his bike. He and Ullrich had been in a tight race separated by just a couple seconds. They had exchanged leads the whole way, each briefly gaining a few seconds advantage. They were also about 15 seconds ahead of the previous best time. So it looked like they would beat the rest of the field, and it looked like they'd finish within 15 seconds of each other. Lance was riding well enough to win the Tour de France.

The roads were in horrible condition and riders were falling all day. Even stage winner David Millar fell off his bike. When Ullrich went down he not only lost the time for the fall, but he lost his edge and had to be careful on the turns. Armstrong realized this and also played it a bit safer to avoid a crash. As they rode conservatively, they both slipped behind Millar and Tyler Hamilton to finish 3rd & 4th. We know Armstrong wants to win the final time trial, but it's better to win the Tour de France than to crash when victory is within sight. It was a smart choice. Make no mistake about it, though, Ullrich and Lance were in rare form until that crash. Both were in range of beating Greg Lemond's all time TdF time trial speed record. The bad weather robbed them of a great finish.

So, Lance will take a 1:16 lead into the final day, and that should be enough to deliver his fifth consecutive TdF victory. The other big winner on the day was Tyler Hamilton. He put in a great ride, not only overtaking Iban Mayo, but also Haimar Zubeldia. Tyler is now in fourth place behind Alexandre Vinokourov, who retained his third place. And it's nice to see David Millar get the stage win. He is usually the one to lose because of a crash or equipment failure, but today it was the misfortune of another that allowed his time to win the day.

OK, get ready for the big finish tomorrow. The green jersey is up for grabs. Robbie McEwen holds 2 points over Baden Cooke and 13 over Eric Zabel. It will be decided on the Champs Elysees for the third consecutive year.

Stage 18: Highway Robbery

For a while it looked like a carbon copy of stage 17. A large group of riders broke away early and built up a huge lead. As they got close, one rider launched an attack to take the victory. Heck, it was even a QuickStep rider like the day before. But David Canada ran out of gas with the line in sight, and the rush to the finish was really exciting.

Let me admit my bias. I like Daniele Nardello and Carlos Dacruz a lot. Nardello won my respect after finishing the 2001 Tour despite a really bloody crash in stage 2. Dacruz has been a great domestique for FDJeux this year. He's led out Baden Cooke on the sprints; he's scooped up sprint points so that Cooke's rivals wouldn't; he's put himself in breakaways on the flat stages and the mountain stages. So, when I saw them gaining on Canada, I got excited. If you saw the stage, you know Dacruz rode like a madman to close the gap to Canada. Yet it was Pablo Lastras who won the stage. How did he do it? When Nardello and Dacruz were in persuit over the last few kilometers, Lastras feigned weakness. Nardello and Dacruz did almost all the work in the chase, Lastras' shifts at the front were about half as long as those of the other riders. In essence, he used their efforts to save energy. When they finally did get to the last 100 meters, Lastras was in prime position to overtake his tired lead-out men.

There's nothing wrong with that. It's not a tactic that will win you friends, but it's legitimate and clever. Since Lance Armstrong got knocked off his bike last Monday, we've heard a lot about the sportsmanship and fair play of the riders, but Lastras' win is a reminder that ultimately, cycling is a cut-throat sport. Do whatever it takes to win.

Stage 18

The second fastest stage in Tour de France history. Only the second time, ever, the average speed topped out over 50 kmph. The lead group was absolutely flying today. And Pablo Lastras gets the stage win. OK, I was tough on Knaven, and I take nothing back. He's a mediocre rider who was in the right place at the right time, but Lastras is legit. He now has a stage win in all of the three Grand Tours. And that's pretty cool. He's never going to win a Tour, but it's nice to see him get some hardware.

With the lead group over 20 minutes ahead of the peleton, the battle for the green jersey was delayed a bit, but it was well-worth the wait. McEwen picked up six points in the first intermediate sprint, but more curious, Ullrich decided to make a run for some time, and outsprinted Armstrong to the line. It gave him an additional two seconds on Lance, but it also denied Cooke and Zabel the points. Picking up points has really helped out Ullrich in this Tour. Each point is a one-second time bonus in the GC, and Ullrich trails Armstrong overall by 65 seconds. However, he leads 103-85 on points, so Ullrich would be 1:23 out without the time bonuses. He's really used the point system to his advantage.

McEwen got the six points and the big two kept Cooke and Zabel off the boards, so McEwen was ahuge winner on the first sprint. He won six points and neither of his closest contenders won any. Then the breakway happened, which was further good news for McEwen. It meant the final sprint would only be worth one point per place, so all he had to do was beat Cooke to the line and he was in first, while Zabel would probably find himself over 10 points out at the end of the day. And that's exactly what happened. Zabel looked like he had the sprint won, but he faded in the last 10 meters. and McEwen lead the peleton to the line. Cooke could just hang onto the wheel, but not much else. So the final sprint for 15th place gave McEwen 9 points, Zabel 8, and Cooke 7. Throw in the earlier six points and McEwen now finds himself in Green, 178-176 over Cooke, with Zabel at 165.

Saturday is a time trial, and Ullrich needs to beat Armstrong by 65 seconds. It can happen. anything can happen in this Tour. It'll be one of the most exciting time trials in Tour history. The yellow will be effectively decided then. And on Sunday, they ride the Champs Elysses to decide the green. Two intermediate sprints, plus the final race to the line. The two biggest prizes are on the line.

We couldn't ask for a better 100th anniversary of the Tour.

Hey, Servais Knaven isn't going to be confused with the great riders, but let's give him his due. He was the best of the opportunists today. He picked a great time to attack the riders in the breakaway, and he was very strong to hold them off. I love to see an ordinary rider do something great, especially when it's someone who has been so close in the past--he's been in breakaways before, only to be beaten at the finish.
Another thing about his win...the Quick Step team now has two stage wins and the polka dot jeresey (Shockingly, Virenque still hasn't failed a drug test). This team has some of the remains of the old Mapei team, which was notorious for doing absolutely nothing in the Tour. Now, they not only have a pulse, they've got a little hardware too.


The long breakaway did prevent the sprinters from picking up big points today. Just to correct the error, it was McEwen--Zabel--Cooke, with each position separated by a point. Just a little separation, but really, this race may come down to one or two points. With the race so close, I expect they'll make themselves present for the intermediate sprints on Friday, and we should have a pivotal bunch finish. Check out this stage profile--McEwen must be chomping at the bit.

Stage 17

After the epic Stages 15 and 16, it was tough to ask for an encore. Really, what could live up to the standards set in the past three days? But Servais Knaven? There was an early breakaway and it held. So no real sprints, and the Green jersey standings remain practically unchanged. It was a serious non-starter of a stage.

How obscure is Knaven? In six previous Tours, his highest finish is 90th. Of course, he's failed to finish twice. He's finished worse than 100th in eight seperate stages this year. He's 123rd overall, 8th on his own team of Quick Step, over three and half hours out. Yet he now has a stage win.

It was that kind of day. Luttenberger was the highest-ranked rider in the lead group, at 13th overall. Parra was the only other rider in the top 50, and he got dropped by the group. The only other rider in the top 100 was 81st-ranked Commesso. The leaders sat back and cruised in together. This is exactly the kind of stage that Armstrong wants. It's exactly the stage the lead sprinters did not want.

Only three guys have realistic chance now:

1 COOKE Baden AUS FDJ 169 pts
2 MC EWEN Robbie AUS LOT 163 pts
3 ZABEL Erik GER TEL 157 pts

They finished 1-2-3 in the peleton, so Cooke gained a whopping 2 points over Zabel. I think both of the Aussies would have preferred there to be no lead group, so there could have been more of a split in the points given for finishing 1-2-3 overall. But FDJ and Lotto lack the skills to lead the chase and Telekom doesn't have the incentive. Zabel picked up points yesterday, take the day easy, lose only two points, and go for it all tommorrow. The clock is ticking, but Zabel is always a threat, particularly since he has the top team of the contenders.

Menchov has the white jersey wrapped up, CSC needs a disaster to lose the team title, Virenque will take home the polka dots. so the only competitions still in the air are the two biggest awards: Green and of course, Yellow. Three more stages to declare a winner. Yellow will be decided on Saturday, and the Green will probably come down to the final sprint.

Tyler Hamilton "I don't think I'm a hero. I'm just doing my job"

I don’t think Mr. Baker really did justice to Tyler Hamilton’s effort–it was far better than he described. When Hamilton woke up Wednesday morning, he was in 7th place, 9 minutes behind the leader, and about a minute away from 6th place Ivan Basso. And his collar bone was still broken.

On the first climb, he was in trouble. His team had to go back and pace him to the peloton. Once he got back, he just kept going. On the first category 1 climb he left the peloton and caught the lead group riders. By the time he topped the second category 1 climb, he was a few minutes ahead of the remaining breakaway group. He looked absolutely miserable as he pulled on his handlebars to negociate the steep climbs. At one point I saw his eyes shut because of the hellish pain he put himself through.

And if you know anything about cycling, you know a lone rider with 4 minutes on the peloton is going to get caught in the remaining 90 kilometers of mostly flat road. That’s just the way it works, and with a guy in the top 10 up ahead, of course the GC contenders are going to push the peloton. They’ll just let Tyler suffer a bit and slowly reel him in.

But there was tact in his move. He was so far behind Ullrich & Armstrong, that they saw no need to chase him down. The riders in jeopardy were Zubledia, Mayo, and Basso, in 4th, 5th, and 6th. They tried to organize a chase, but Basso’s Fassa Bortolo team only has three riders remaining, and Euskaltel, well they can’t do jack once they’re off the mountains. So, Tyler actually stretched the lead until about the 25 km banner. Wouldn’t the sprinters want the stage win for themselves? Could their teams pace the peloton back in? The problem is that most of the big sprinters were behind the peloton, having been dropped in the earlier mountains. So the chase wasn’t robust–they were good enough to scoop up every last one of the other riders from the breakaway, but what about Hamilton? He kept the tempo up as though it was just a giant time trial, only instead of one rider behind him, he was trying to hold off a pack of about 60 men.

Still, the math doesn’t work. They should have caught him–1 minute per 10 km, right? And we’re talking about a guy succeeding on a 3 hour solo breakaway. Even the best time trialer will crack over the last 70 km, right? Especially when Telekom joins in the persuit to protect Vinokourov...

But he did hold on. He didn’t just escape by a hair, he won by 2 minutes! I was in awe of Hamilton when he FINISHED stage 2 with the peloton. I was in awe when he finished a mountain stage. I was in awe when he attacked in the mountains, but this takes the cake. The man was getting dropped, recovered, attacked the peloton and then the lead group over several climbs, extended his lead on the flats, and held on for the win. And he’s in such pain that he probably can’t tie his shoes!

After the two minute win and the time bonuses, he’s up to 6th place. He’s just over a minute behind Mayo, who’s in fifth. In the first time trial he beat Mayo by nearly two and a half minutes. He’s in range to finish this Tour in the top 5, and he got in that position by torturing himself for hours each day, every day. Tyler Hamilton, you are brilliant; you are superhuman.

Stage 16

Tyler Hamilton is god.




A 95-mile solo breakaway just does not happen in the Tour de France. That's practically impossible, one rider working on his own just can't hold off the entire peleton. Unless that rider is Tyler Hamilton. The same Tyler Hamilton who broke his collarbone in Stage 1. Stage 1, people. He not only continued when no one expected him to, he is putting forth his greatest effort ever.

Seriously, this makes Willis Reed look like a whiner. He makes Cal Ripken look like a whiner. Hamilton is riding the most grueling race on the planet without the benefit of upper-body strength. This is, without exaggeration, the toughest performance I have ever seen in a sporting event. Ever. I can't even describe just how difficult what he's doing actually is. My brother broke his collarbone once and couldn't get out of a chair without help. Hamilton just won a mountain stage in the Tour de France. This is unfreaking believable.

I hate to even mention the rest of the race out of respect for Hamilton's ridiculous performance, but there was some developments in the battle for the green jersey. I've been writing off Zabel for about two and half weeks, well, he's back. He led the peleton to the finish, getting him 18 points. Even bigger, only O'Grady managed any points in the stage. So, going into the sprinter's stages, the Points standings just got even tighter:

1 COOKE Baden AUS FDJ 156 pts
2 MC EWEN Robbie AUS LOT 148 pts
3 ZABEL Erik GER TEL 143 pts
4 HUSHOVD Thor NOR C.A 134 pts
5 O'GRADY Stuart AUS C.A 128 pts

Tommorrow is all about the sprinters. There are no mountains, hell, no hills. There are two intermediate sprints and a nice rolling finish. It's time for someone to step up and win the green jersey.

But today? Today is all about Tyler Hamilton, my hero.

What to do on the rest day?

The Tour takes the day off, but we don’t. Our crackerjack investigative staff (i.e. my sister) has come up with 10 questions of interests for the TdF experts to take a stab at.

Before we get to that, a programming note. Keep following the website for a couple days after the Tour ends. We’ll have closing remarks on the teams, some best of/worst of, and an All-Star team.

1) Is this the best TdF since the LeMond–Fignon duel of 1989?
Gioia: Who’s writing these questions? Of course it is! The ‘96 Tour was big because someone finally beat Indurain, but it was really a one day coup by Bjarne Riis. The ‘98 Tour had a great battle between Ullrich and Pantani, Jan winning the time trials, but Pantani putting on a clinic in the mountains. But, that race was also the big doping fiasco. This Tour has been so close and the action has been furious. Attacks have come from everyone and at all time. Ullrich considered himself the virtual yellow jersey and attacked on the penultimate climb in stage 15! Armstrong has been out of form and feeling bad, but he finally managed to catch a good day and take the race by the throat. Despite his efforts, the great teamwork, and the great game plan, it’s still not in the bag.

Baker: This is the Tour we should have had in 2000. We did get the Lance-Ullrich-Beloki podium for the first and only time, but that Tour was merely an affirmation of Armstrong’s greatness. At that point, we just didn’t know he was that awesome. This Tour has been unbelievable, with constant attacking and a really vulnerable Armstrong. This easily the best Tour since 1991, when Indurain won his first, Abdoujaparov won the green, and Chiappucci finished third and won King of the Mountains. I really thought he was going to win that time. The 1989 Tour has been the gold standard, I think this one surpasses it if the time trial is close.


2) What stands in the way of Armstrong winning his fifth consecutive Tour de France?
Gioia: Who’s writing these questions? Look, Ullrich is down by 67 seconds, but he beat Lance by 96 in the first time trial. Yeah, Lance was dehydrated, but a win is a win. Ullrich still feels confident. He put his best spin on stage 15, saying he only lost a minute, when he used to lose two to Lance’s attacks.
It is feasible that Ullrich could ride the time trial of his life and pull this off, but it’s a tall order. As I said two weeks ago, Lance Armstrong plans his entire year so that he can win the final time trial while wearing yellow. Everyone else is broken and demoralized on that day. For him, it’s Christmas morning.

Baker: Stage 16 is the last day in the mountains, but for a mountain day, it’s pretty easy. That’s easy for me to say, sitting in a nice air-conditioned room playing on the internet. But you get the point. Stage 19 is the time trial, and Ullrich could have another huge day. But I think Armstrong just has to ride smart and he wins. However, always beware a crash in a group sprint, and there are going to be plenty of those since the Points title is still up for grabs.

3) But might there be any more wackiness?
Gioia: The way things have gone in this Tour, don’t bet against anything. I’ve heard Roberto Heras has a respiratory infection. Don’t tempt fate! If I were Lance I’d personally pay his carfare, room, board, and medical bills so that Heras could spend the week recovering in Paris.

Baker: I’m sure there is going to be more wackiness. It’s been a very bizarre Tour. For awhile it looked like this Tour would be the most brutal ever, as over 30 riders dropped in the Alps. However, the riders have hung tough in the Pyranees and now it might have the highest percentage of finishers ever. I can’t figure it out. Lance has won one stage and crashed three times. Yet he’s winning. I’m baffled. The only thing that makes sense is that David Millar is still whining.

4) Would things be different if Team Bianchi, not USPS-Berry Floor, had signed Manuel Beltran?
Gioia: I think so. Remember, Beltran set the tempo that blew away Rubiera and Ullrich at the start of Alpe d’Huez. He was huge in carrying Lance through the Pyrenees.

Baker: Way to take a stand, Gioia. Of course it would be different. Ullrich’s Stage 15 tactics would have been entirely different if he had support. He could really use a domestique, and probably wouldn’t have lost as much time in the Alps. Armstrong would be in deep trouble without Beltran since Heras has really had a mediocre Tour so far. Rubiera has picked up the slack as well, but Beltrtan has been the top domestique of any team in the Tour.

5) Was Beloki’s crash the worst you’ve ever seen?
Gioia: No. Remember, Fabio Cassertelli had a routine-looking crash until he hit his head on a concrete barricade and died. Beloki’s crash was awful, and it looked so bad because he swerved out of control for so long. He was going so fast that it had a devastating impact. His career is in jeopardy.

Baker: Nardello’s crash was pretty bad. But the memory of that crash isn’t the crash itself, but the Italian getting back on his bike and finishing the race a bloody mess. The Cassertelli crash was awful, but you didn’t know how bad it was until a few minutes later. Beloki’s crash was spectacular. You knew it was bad right away, and I had the worst gut reaction to it. So, yeah, it was the worst I’ve ever seen.

6) Where would Beloki be if he had not crashed out of the race?
Gioia: Well, he’s not as strong as Lance or Jan, so I think he’d be close to Vinokourov. They’d be in a huge battle for third.

Baker: He’s not quite the time trailer the other two are, but I don’t think he would have gotten dropped like Vino, but he would never be allowed to breakaway like Vino has. So he wouldn’t lose as much on Stage 15, but he wouldn’t gain on 14. About two minutes back.

7) Has Christophe Moreau won your respect yet?
Gioia: Surprisingly, yes. Moreau was such a wimp a couple years ago when the Great French Hope quit early in the mountains. This year he has had great form. He’s gone on the attack a few times. Look, we know he’s just not good enough to win it all. It seems like he’s accepted his limitations and is making the most of what he’s got. He’s not going to win the yellow jersey, but he can attack, ride strongly, and be the fastest Frenchman.

Baker: He’s been yellow jersey group every single day. If he wouldn’t have gotten his ass kicked in the time trial, he’d be about five minutes out. Then again, everybody got their ass kicked in the time trial. He’s always been among the last drops. He has been terrific.

8) Is Iban Mayo the second incarnation of Claudio Chiappucci?
Gioia: I wish! Maybe he’s a Basque knockoff of the original. He seems to attack on each and every big climb, regardless of the situation, and he just can’t hack it in the time trial. That’s Claudio-esque, but NO ONE has the personality of Chiappucci.

Baker: Claudio’s allure was two-fold: his outstanding personality and his complete disdain for tactics. It was all-out attack every single day. It really had to be seen to be believed. He is the greatest rider to never win the Tour, he just got on his bike and rode as hard as he could every day. It was like he had a personal vendetta against the mountains. Virenque is in polka dots now, but nobody fears him on the mountains. Mayo is close in his attack everyday mantra, but he is not nearly as colorful a personality. Then again, no one is.

9) Did you jump out of your chair and yell when Lance attacked again after falling off his bike?
Gioia: Yes. I had been waiting for him to throw the hammer down. It was gutsy, and vicious. Bruised, backed-up against the wall, so what! Go for it!

Baker: I started yelling at anyone within earshot. Of course, the only ones in the room were my two dogs. Lacey seemed excited, but Barney was rather non-plussed and went back to sleep. When Lance slipped on the pedal, it was the first time I thought he might lose the race. Ten minutes later, he was dominating.

10) Has Bob Roll grown on you?
Gioia: OLN has done well to limit his air time. His self-deprecating commercials are really funny. I loved it when Paul Sherwin started mocking his hand gestures. Bob Roll is now OLN’s TdF mascot, and he’s good in that role.

Baker: His commercials are very funny. Particularly the pronunciation of “de”. They put him next to some eye-candy and gave the two of them pretty much nothing to do. And that’s good. The more Leggitt and Sherwen, the better. So, Roll no longer makes me want to kick in my TV, so that’s a positive.

Stage 15

It was everything it was supposed to be. Stage 15 was simply epic. There's a lot of stuff to go over, but let's get to the most important sutff first. Armstrong won his first stage of this year's Tour. And he did it going away, showing that he's still got some power in those legs. He now has a 1:07 lead over Ullrich, which should be enough to win the Tour. He still has to ride a strong time trial, but as long as Armstrong keeps Ullrich within his sights, he's going to win his fifth straight. Vionkourov did not have that great of a day. finishing two minutes out, he's now 2:45 out. No one else is within 5 minutes of Lance, though Zubelia and Mayo are knocking on the door. And only six riders are within 10 minutes. The race is now, finally, blown apart.

Ullrich gambled huge on Col de Tourmalet. He tried to break away a good 30 km from the finish and with two climbs to go. It was the best chance he had for winning. The break forced Lance to drop all of his US Postal domestiques and the increased pace actually cracked Vino. But even if Vino had kept up, he would have found himself without any Telekom support. Ullrich's strategy was predicated on the simple fact he has a weaker team. Ullrich tried to negate the advantage his closest competitors have by simply forcing Armstrong and Vino to drop their teams. Make it a mano-et-mano showdown. For a while, I thought it was going to work. The Euskatel duo kept up, but the rest of the lead peleton slowly drifted behind. It made it a four-man race. The break failed because the Basque riders refused to support the two leaders. And on the descent, the lead peleton caught up, and Vino caught up to everyone who had dropped him. And he got a little bit of rest on the descent.

So the riders hit the base of Luz-Ardiden in one group again. This time, it was the Basque's turn to attack, and Mayo tried to break. This wasn't suprising since the Euskatel duo is close enough to be a threat but far enough back that they had to win this stage by a large margin in order to win the yellow. Only Armstrong could follow. and with what looked like a growing ten seconds lead, disaster struck. It's not entirely clear what happened, but Armstrong went down, taking Mayo with him. ullrich just avoided the crash. And then came the most remarkable moment of this Tour full of remarkable moments...

The lead riders refused to press their advantage with Armstrong and Mayo on the ground. The unwritten rule of cycling is you do not press the advantage when your rival crashes. But that rule gets violated all of the time. Beloki attacked last year when Armstrong was back at the team car. It happens. And Ullrich could see this was a chance to erase the 15 second deficit. But he didn't attack. If he was going to win the Tour, he was going to do it the right way. He was going to beat Armstrong face-to-face, not when he was on the ground. It was a terrific moment of sportsmanship, obeyed by every rider no matter how much they wanted to win the greatest race in the world.

And Lance came back and blew them off the road. When he made contact again with the lead group, there was yet another attack and Armstrong took that as his singla to just keep going. He would open up a one minute lead and conquer the mountatin. He would reel in the long-time stage leader, Chavanel, with ease. and in another sporting gesture, he patted the Frenchman on the back to tell him he did a good job. But it was now time for the Armstrong Express.

There was no silly celebration at the end. No mock bow and arrow, no binkie, not even a fist pump. Armstrong practically collapsed upon finishing. This was the most important stage of the 2003 Tour de France. and Armstrong won it. And it looks like he's going to win the Tour again.

Stage 14--Vinokourov strikes back

Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich kept each other in check all day in stage 14, but they were so attentive of each other that Alexandre Vinokourov escaped on the final climb. Vinokourov beat them to the line by 43 seconds. That leaves Armstrong in yellow by 15 seconds over Ullrich, but Vinokourov is now just 18 seconds behind Armstrong. Just when we thought it couldn't get more interesting...

After the race, Armstrong was asked if he's only marking Ullrich, and he bluntly said yes. The way to bet is that either Ullrich or Armstrong will win, but the resiliant Vinokourov simply will not go away. Monday's stage could be decisive, and even if it is not, it will decide the starting order for the final time trial on Saturday.

Strategy: It may look like USPS has withered away, but I don't think so. They put Beltran in a breakaway, much like they did with Ruberia on Saturday. Because he was in the breakaway, and because Ullrich's team began to act the role of the team of the leader, USPS didn't ride tempo at the lead of the peloton. While they sat tight, Bianchi and Euskaltel set the tempo and made themselves tired. Lance's climbers, Rubiera, Beltran, and Heras all finished well back, so they may be a little less weary come Monday. Armstrong may have use for rested climbers at the foot of Monday's final climb.

Eventually it's going to become academic. Expect all of the top three to push the attack Monday. The strongest one will wear yellow for the time trial. It's that simple now.

What about Armstrong's form? He didn't look bad at all today. I thought he was holding back. It looks like he has recovered from his dehydration problem. Maybe his plan today was simply to stay next to Ullrich and conserved energy so that he can have more strength for the big race on Monday.

King of the Mountains
Richard Virenque was in the top three of all 6 climbs in stage 14. He now holds a 137 point lead over Laurent Dufaux. So long as he makes it to Paris and doesn't fail any drug tests, he'll win yet another polka dot jersey.

Team competition
CSC extended its lead over Banesto to nine minutes. Even though Tyler Hamilton slipped in the standings, he, Sastre, and Andrea Peron all had strong finishes on the day. Because CSC has better time trial riders than Banesto, this competition may be done.

Oh, by the way, Gilberto Simoni won the stage today. This is the rider who one month ago was trash-talking about beating Lance. He started the day over 90 minutes behind. Now he's got a stage win, so he & Saeco can at least say they did something good in the race. This isn't the glory he envisioned at the Tour, but winning his first TdF stage should make him feel a little better.

Stage 14

Goddamn CBS.

Hey, I'm happy they want to cover the Tour. I like it when "minor" sports get some love from the major networks. While ESPN is busying handing out ESPYs and showing the Great Outdoor Games, it's good to see some sports departments are trying to find actual programming. But if you're going to cover the event, cover the goddamn event. I woke up at 7 AM, walked the dogs, had a bowl of corn flakes, and then turned on trusty OLN to catch the action.

And instead all I get is American Sportsman. Son of a bitch. And what is CBS showing? A freakin' infomercial! Hey, if you're going to black out OLN's coverage, have the decency to show the damn race you are blacking out. I had to spend my morning following the race through updates via the BBC. So I don't have any analysis. I missed the freaking race today. And when CBS finally did get around to covering the Tour, it was a weekly wrap-up show with about 5 minutes devoted to today's racing. Damn you, CBS!! I know what happened already, I wanted to watch today's race. Bastards!

OK, I had to get that off my chest. It's nice to see Simoni get a stage win. He's arguably been the biggest dud of the entire Tour, but he at least saved some face an took hoem a stage win. Also, today's breakaway group had some of my favorite riders: Simoni, Nardello, Bettini, and Beltran. No reason to note that, just a personal thing. Just another reason I'm still irritated by CBS. Anyway, Vino picked up some time again, so the top three are now seperated by less than 20 seconds. That means it is anybody's race.

I said it on Friday, and I'm saying it again. Monday's stage is the big one. I believe the yellow jersey will be won or lost in Stage 15. This will be the biggest stage in the Tour in about five years. I cannot overstate how important it is to the closest race in a decade. I'll keep you posted.