Lance Armstrong took another step towards an historic sixth yellow jersey on the Tour de France on Tuesday with an exciting, if unfamiliar, winning sprint which handed him the yellow jersey.
Armstrong, more known for putting his rivals to the sword on the race’s tough climbs, put his largely unseen sprint qualities on show to win the 15th stage held over 180,5km between Valreas and Villard-de-Lans ahead of Italian Ivan Basso.
The 26-year-old Basso, of the CSC team, finished second and is now only 1,25 seconds behind US Postal’s team leader, who has nearly a seven-minute lead on Germany’s 1997 winner Jan Ullrich, third at 0,3 seconds on the stage.
Armstrong admitted that despite picking up another stage win, he is still looking to distance Basso.
”Why sit up and get caught, and why give 20 seconds to your rivals? It was important,” Armstrong said.
”Johan [Bruyneel, team manager] was screaming in my ear that I had to win because of the time bonuses. We still have the issue of a minute and 25 seconds so every second counts.
”But we had to go for the time bonuses. And I have to say, there’s something special about winning on the sprint. To win alone it’s exciting and fun.
”But the sprint for me is much more intense than being alone.”
Armstrong’s display of superiority on a day when his US Postal team once again showed their solidity brought an end to Thomas Voeckler’s 10-day spell in yellow.
The 24-year-old La Boulangere rider had started the day with a 22 second lead on Armstrong, but admitted after another tough day of racing that it had come to a logical end.
”I can’t complain, I had 10 days in the yellow jersey and I gave everything in this stage but I just had nothing left in the tank,” said Voeckler who was dropped several times by the peloton before finishing the stage at 9,30.
Voeckler, who is now 9,28 behind in the standings, added: ”Armstrong showed he was the best today. He was attacked, and came back well at the end to win.”
The stage was kicked into life by numerous early attacks, including one by French climber Richard Virenque, who in the end managed to claim 49 points to consolidate his King of the Mountains jersey.
However the fast pace in the first half hour of racing spelled the end of the road for former contender Iban Mayo of Spain.
The 26-year-old Euskaltel rider, who before the race was touted as a bona fide challenger to Armstrong, finally decided to end his race having suffered humiliation in the Pyrenees.
But the main event of the day was an ambitious attack by T-Mobile team leader Ullrich, who lost big time to Armstrong during two tough days of climbing in the Pyrenees.
The 30-year-old German, who has come runner-up in the race five times, must be haunted by the thought of finishing further down than second place and made a bid to level out the time difference with an attack on the ascent of the day’s only really difficult climb.
However depsite gaining an advantage of 55 seconds, Ullrich found the going tough as his companions Santos Gonzalez, of Phonak, and Frenchman Laurent Brochard, of AG2R, could not help him extend his lead.
The confident US Postal team of Armstrong waited before reacting to Ullrich’s attack, but once they did it proved effective.
The German was caught with around 20km from the finish, and he admitted that all he wanted to do was shake things up a bit.
”Today I felt really good, so I just wanted to try something,” a fresh-looking Ullrich said after his first real solo adventure so far in the race.
”I wanted to prod Lance a bit. It was a pity I had to go on my own, and into the wind. The guys I was riding with either couldn’t or didn’t want to help me extend the lead.
”I would have loved to have won the sprint, but after all the climbs my legs just gave up in the final,” added Ullrich, who along with Basso will be one of Armstrong’s big rivals for the 15km time trial of the race up the legendary Alpe d’Huez on Wednesday.
When Armstrong caught up with the leading group shortly before the finish, it was unsure how the American’s sprint tactics would pan out.
However shortly after the red flag at the one kilometre to go mark, Armstrong and Basso pushed ahead of Ullrich, his T-Mobile teammate Andreas Kloden, and Levy Leipheimer.
A few metres before the final bend, a tight left-hand affair which forced Armstrong into a dangerous looking turn, he accelerated to pull ahead of Basso and come over the line gesturing triumphantly.
For Basso, it proved a disappointment.
”I really wanted to win this stage,” said Basso. ”But today Lance was simply stronger than me. It’s not the kind of sprint that really suited me.
”But the good thing is that my legs still feel strong.” – Sapa-AFP