Lance Armstrong Yellow Jersey!!

[alfredo]

Basso 2nd (down 1.25"), and Ullrich third in this mountain stage.

Tomorrow LAlpe'd Huez.


1. Lance Armstrong (USP) 180.5km in 4h40'30" (38.609km/h)
2. Ivan Basso (CSC) at same time
3. Jan Ullrich (TMO) at 03"
4. Andreas Kloden (TMO) at 06"
5. Levi Leipheimer (RAB) at 13"
6. Richard Virenque (QSD) at 48"
7. Mickael Rasmussen (RAB) at 49"
8. Jose Azevedo (USP) at 53"
9. Jens Voigt (CSC) at 1'04"
10. Carlos Sastre (CSC) at 1'24"

Here's a more gentle part of the climb. Switch backs become very steep, disrupting your cadence. After 5-10 of them they start taking a toll.



The profile:



A switch back



The finish

[RT Atlanta]

1. Rock on

Lance kicks ass!

[shadu]

3. Which stage are they in? When does it end?

[Longhorn]

5. Today was Stage 15 of 20 stages.

The final stage is Sunday, July 25.

http://www.tourdefrancenews.com/tourdefrance/daily/stages/0,3485,s1-,00.html

[shadu]

7. Thank You, Longhorn

[trumad]

2. It's over...

Lance ahead by 1:25 at this stage of the race is the equivalent of 10 hours.....

[Longhorn]

4. Robin Williams is hillarious!

The OLN commentators were just interviewing him at the Tour de France. I'm sorry, I can't begin to do justice to the interview -- maybe they'll repeat it tonight when they do a recap of the tour. They show reruns all day -- Robin Williams was in the last 15-20 minutes.

[Gothmog]

6. Go Lance Go

I hope that Lance can pull this off and win again.

[BillZBubb]

8. Will Armstrong stump for Bush* again?

Or will Sheryl Crowe cut him off if he does?

[Jane Austin]

11. What are Sheryl Crowe's politics?

I was wondering if she wouldn't moderate him.

[GOPisEvil]

23. She was virulently anti-war.

[HuckleB]

27. It appears that Armstrong was against the Iraq War as well.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,992329,00.html

"For Armstrong there is an irony in this hostility. He was also against the war in Iraq, so much so that he told George Bush.

'He's a personal friend, but we've all got the right not to agree with our friends,' he said."

[AngryAmish]

9. How many more mountain stages?

It seems that Armstrong chap is pretty good at those. He should concentrate on those.

[alfredo]

12. 3 more mountain stages. Tomorrow and the day after will

be the tough ones, the third will not be as steep or as high. then Saturday will be a 55Km time trial, and the last stage will be to the finish.

Lance is a good climber and time trial rider. Still, Basso could make a final push against Lance, but Lance has two advantages, experience and a solid team.

[MattNC]

10. toughest sport in the world

in my opinion.

[AngryAmish]

13. Brutally tough

But boxing is tougher. At least nobody is hitting you while you go down the road.

Pro bike racing is insanely dangerous, tho.

[HuckleB]

14. Was this thread started somewhere else?

There were two threads on this in the Lounge already, both begun well before this thread, so, uh, dupe.

[UrbScotty]

15. LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANCE!

Beating cancer to possibly win six Tours? Wow.

[trigz]

16. Tomorrow is the biggest test, as they enter the Alps.

Armstrong did well today. Here, we are also happy that Thor Hushovd managed four unexpected sprint points which mean he's not out of the race for the green jersey quite yet.

[Flaxbee]

17. OK, what time (eastern US) can I start watching tomorrow....

and what channels? Does ESPN cover it? I've never really followed it before, but caught a stage last week and was transfixed (but I was out of state, different channels, times, etc.)...

Can anyone point me in the right TV-viewing direction?

[alfredo]

18. Lance!!!!

Looks like he put the hammer down today.


After 16 stages of the 2004 Tour de France, the top 10 overall is:
1. Lance Armstrong (USP) 2,802.1km in 67h53'24" (41.265km/h)
2. Ivan Basso (CSC) at 3'48"
3. Andreas Kloden (TMO) at 5'03"
4. Jan Ullrich (TMO) at 7'55"
5. Jose Azevedo (USP) at 9'19"
6. Francisco Mancebo (IBB) at 9'20"
7. Georg Totschnig (GST) at 11'34"
8. Carlos Sastre (CSC) at 13'52"
9. Pietro Caucchioli (ALB) 14'08"
10. Levi Leipheimer (RAB) at 15'04"

Stage standings:

1. Lance Armstrong (USP) 15.5km in 39'41.450 (23.44km/h)
2. Jan Ullrich (TMO) at 1'01"
3. Andreas Kloden (TMO) at 1'41"
4. Jose Azevedo (USP) at 1'45"
5. Santos Gonzalez (PHO) at 2'10"
6. Giuseppe Guerini (TMO) at 2'11"
7. Vladimir Karpets (IBB) at 2'14"
8. Ivan Basso (CSC) at 2'22"
9. David Moncoutie (COF) at 2'22"
10. Carlos Sastre (CSC) at 2'27"

[northzax]

19. yeah, he caught Basso on the climb.

never pleasant when you're trying to hang in there and you blow a two minute lead.

[alfredo]

21. I've been predicting that this was the stage where

Lance would seal the deal.

[BiggJawn]

20. Oh, YEAH!

I can't imagine what it feels like to be in a staged-start event and get passed by the guy behind you...
I'm sure I'd find out first time I entered one, though...:-)

[Blue-Jay]

22. I'm sure Basso was thinking "WTF!?!?"

Lance is a robot or something. Incredible.

[GOPisEvil]

24. Did Lance look over his shoulder as he rode past?

That had to be one of the most deflating moments (for the other guys) in sports history.

[Flaxbee]

25. nope, he didn't even glance over as he passed Basso, or

back as he sped ahead. Was pretty incredible to watch. All these guys are phenomenal but Lance is just a monster. Amazing.

[BiggJawn]

26. Jan deserves "Best WAR FACE" honours, IMO...

He had a good ride, Lance just had a better one.

BTW, Lance's time for the ride was only a minute behind the record set by Marco Pantani