Backporch Beer - WE'VE CLOSED! THANKS FOR YOUR PATRONAGE!

Armstrong Wins

Wow. Wow.

Armstrong takes the stage, picks up 50 seconds in raw time on Ullrich plus about a 20 second time bonus. The attack on the Tourmalet will be legendary, but then on the Ardiden, Armstrong got pulled down by a spectator’s goodie bag. Ullrich waited for Armstrong to get back on the bike and catch up, and Armstrong then immediately attacked, flying up the rest of the climb.

(Aside for y’all who don’t follow cycling – The last time Ullrich rode the tour, he had a terrible accident, dropping off the road and into a ditch on the backside of a mountain. Armstrong sat up on the descent, and wouldn’t start attacking again until Ullrich was back on the bike, and had caught up to Armstrong. There’s kind of a code of ethics which holds that you don’t blow a race wide open just because one of the other riders has hit some bad luck. Ullrich paid Armstrong back today).

Tyler Hamilton finished about 90 seconds back today. He’s in fourth overall, but is about 8 or 9 minutes back, so pretty much out of the running for the overall win. But the guy in third was even further behind, Hamilton has a shot at picking up the third place overall.

The other cool story was that a young French rider, Sylvain Chavanel, lead the stage from early on until 3 km from the finish. Armstrong gave him a pat on the back and a kind word as he caught and passed Chavanel who’d had about a 6 minute lead at the base of the Ardiden. In past Tours, where Armstrong had huge leads by this point, Armstrong would have let the young guy have the stage win. Today, Armstrong needed to pick up the time. Too bad for Sylvain.

The Tour ends on Sunday. Armstrong is sitting 67 seconds in front of Ullrich with a mountain stage and a time trial left to go. Ullrich took 90 seconds from Armstrong in the first individual time trial. The German is a machine, huge man, tons of power. While Armstrong has won 6 out of the 8 time trials he’s raced in the Tour, Ullrich blew him away this year. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.