As Lance Armstrong closes in on a seventh straight Tour de France title, the high mountains safely behind him and the finish almost in sight, just one thing is missing: a daily stage win of his own.
In all of his previous record six Tour wins, Armstrong always managed to win at least one individual stage. Not this year. But he’s hoping to set that straight this week, in the time trial before the final ride into Paris on Sunday.
Even Armstrong, who doesn’t like to tempt fate by claiming a win in advance, admits that ”the odds are good” that he’ll have the race leader’s and winner’s yellow jersey — the famed maillot jaune — on his back when he retires from cycling at the end of the race.
Completing the last of three days in the Pyrenees on Tuesday left just a mostly flat stage, two medium mountain stages and the time trial for Armstrong to negotiate before the final victorious pedal up Paris’s Champs-Elysees.
Armstrong’s main rivals, sensing their chances of catching the American are slipping away, tried testing him again on two rigorous climbs during Tuesday’s 16th stage from Mourenx to Pau.
But he brushed off the challenges, easily matching their uphill accelerations to defend his comfortable lead. He finished with his main rivals in a group behind stage winner Oscar Pereiro of Spain — and announced that he was feeling better than ever.
Armstrong called it a ”no chain” day — meaning he felt so strong that it seemed as if his bicycle had no chain. Not bad for a 33-year-old who has ridden 2 811km, through the north, east and south of France, over the Alps and Pyrenees, in the past two weeks.
”I don’t have a real explanation but I felt amazing on the bike, totally confident,” Armstrong said. ”The big, big days and the big difficulties are done. Now we have to stay safe, stay conservative, and look to the final time trial and try to close it out.”
Pereiro completed Tuesday’s 180,5km trek in four hours, 38 minutes and 40 seconds for his and his Swiss Phonak team’s first win at the Tour. Armstrong, Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and other top riders were 3:24 back.
Armstrong’s lead over Italian Basso, who is looking to improve on his third-place podium finish last year, remains at 2:46.
Mickael Rasmussen of Denmark is third, 3:09 behind the six-time champion.
Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner who is fourth overall, trails Armstrong by 5:58.
Armstrong, who was a brash young racer when he started but has over time come to respect the 102-year-old Tour’s traditions, said he wants to honour the yellow jersey by riding all-out in the time trial on Saturday — a discipline in which he excels.
”I have to stay with my boys, stay out of trouble, then get to the final time trial, ride as hard as I can, represent the yellow jersey, show that he deserves to be the champ, then ride into Paris, a few laps, and that’s it,” he said.
In his winning Tours from 1999 to 2004, Armstrong won a total of 19 individual stages, 10 of them time trials. In all but 2003, his shakiest victory, Armstrong’s winning margins in Paris have exceeded six minutes. In 2003, he beat Ullrich by just 61 seconds.
Ullrich, Basso and Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov were among those who put on uphill bursts of speed on Tuesday on the steep Col de Marie-Blanque and the longer ascent up to the Col d’Aubisque, the two hardest of four climbs. But Armstrong never looked in difficulty — even when his teammates couldn’t match the pace.
”I’m feeling better and better every day,” he said.
Armstrong is so relaxed that he’s even able to savour his last Tour. Aside from the race, he set out at the start on July 2 with the objective of winning the hearts of French fans. He said on Tuesday that he feels the French are, by and large, behind him.
”The amount of support is great this year,” he said. ”If there’s one in 100 that are negative, don’t dwell on that, think of the 99 that are positive, and remember this Tour, remember this last week, remember these last days.
”It will never be like this again for me. I will never be in yellow again, and that’s a special thing, so I need to cherish those moments.”
Pereiro’s win made up for his disappointment in the 15th stage, when he placed second, beaten in a finishing sprint by Armstrong’s teammate George Hincapie.
”Victory in the Tour is so important,” said Pereiro, who placed 10th last year in his first Tour. He dedicated his win to his wife, who is expecting their baby in October.
Pereiro’s ride vaulted him from 17th to 15th overall, but he is 15:40 behind Armstrong.
Already, some rivals are pinning their hopes on next year — when Armstrong will not be competing.
”When Lance Armstrong, the sheriff, is no longer here, then we can think about doing something more,” said Francisco Mancebo, a Spaniard who is fifth overall. — Sapa-AP