Is Armstrong Bluffing?

B. Lafferty said:

From EuroSport:

Five times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong
finished back in 15th,
2:13 adrift.

I'll bet JB says:

1. Armstrong isn't there to win.

2. He was the good team rider for Eki who was up the road.

3. Only did it to give you something to gripe about.
--

--------------------

Remove CLOTHES to reply

B. Lafferty said:

From EuroSport:

Five times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong
finished back in 15th, 2:13 adrift.

I'll bet JB says:

1. Armstrong isn't there to win.

2. He was the good team rider for Eki who was up the road.

Did anyone see this on tv or live in France?

Yes.

"Tim Lines" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:B9Orc.95273$536.16687236@attbi_s03...

Quoted message said:

B. Lafferty said:

From EuroSport:

Five times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong
finished back in

15th,

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

2:13 adrift.

I'll bet JB says:

1. Armstrong isn't there to win.

2. He was the good team rider for Eki who was up the
road.

3. Only did it to give you something to gripe about.

Lance Armstrong finished more than two minutes back and was
reported by AFP to be struggling on the final hill. However,
the American fared better than Britain's David Millar, who
did not finish, and Australian Cadel Evans, who finished
outside the time limit.

Lance Armstrong, vor zwei Jahren Sieger des Vorgängerrennens
Midi Libre, hatte am Samstag nicht seinen allerbesten Tag.
Der fünffache Toursieger war
15. mit 2:13 Minuten Rückstand, was aber vor allem auch mit
taktischen Erwägungen zu tun hatte. "Wir hatten heute
mit Ekimov und Beltran zwei Mann vorne, das brauchten
wir im Feld kein Tempo machen", erklärte US Postal-
Teamchef Johan Bruyneel.

Armstrong, qui n'a pas souhaité s'exprimer après l'étape,
est 9e à 2.31 minutes. "Je maintiens que nous ne sommes pas
venus ici pour gagner", a commenté le directeur sportif de
l'US Postal, Johan Bruyneel. "La deuxième place d'Ekimov est
une bonne surprise, ce n'était pas du tout dans nos espoirs.
Avec deux hommes devant aujourd'hui, Ekimov et Manuel
Beltran, ce n'était pas à nous de rouler."

Effectivement, Beltran et Ekimov sont partis dans la
bonne échappée, composée de 19 coureurs et lancée à
l'initiative de Moreau après une quarantaine de
kilomètres, juste avant la traversée d'Alès. Le leader de
la formation Crédit Agricole et son coéquipier Fédrigo
ont ensuite imprimé un rythme rapide, provoquant de gros
dégâts dans le groupe de tête.

Les deux hommes ont lancé une attaque décisive au pied de la
Côte de Molinès-Balsiège, seulement suivis par Ekimov,
Flores et l'Allemand Tobias Steinhauser (T-Mobile), qui a
finalement terminé 4e de l'étape.

"B. Lafferty" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

From EuroSport:

Five times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong
finished back in 15th,
2:13 adrift.

Bluffing? Nah. That'd be out of character. Lance must be
too old now.

Quoted message said:

I'll bet JB says:

1. Armstrong isn't there to win.

2. He was the good team rider for Eki who was up the road.

3. Lance eats too many M&M's while filming Subaru
commercials.

Quoted message said:

Did anyone see this on tv or live in France?

Surely yes.

Dave

In article <[email hidden]>,

Robert Chung said:

B. Lafferty said:

From EuroSport:

Five times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong
finished back in 15th, 2:13 adrift.

I'll bet JB says:

1. Armstrong isn't there to win.

2. He was the good team rider for Eki who was up the
road.

Did anyone see this on tv or live in France?

Yes.

Well said.

--
tanx, Howard

"Moby [censored] was a work of art, What the hell
happened?"

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

B. Lafferty said:

Lance Armstrong finished more than two minutes back and
was reported by AFP to be struggling on the final hill.
However, the American fared better than Britain's David
Millar, who did not finish, and Australian Cadel Evans,
who finished outside the time limit.

The camera was following the drama at the front of the race
among Flores, Ekimov, and Moreau. Only when those guys had
crossed the line did it switch back to the survivors.

When I flipped the TV on, the 30-40 riders left in the
peloton were chasing a gang of 5 (Fedrigo and Moreau of CA,
Ullrich's max bud Steinhauser, Euskaltel's Iker Flores, and
Ekimov) at a bit under 3 minutes and 20 km from the arrivee.
The chase didn't seem particularly motivated, and was led
mostly by Cofidis. USPS was behind them, LANCE phalanxed in
maybe 10th place or thereabouts. There must have been a
crosswind and those 40 guys were split into two echelons.
The break was being driven by Fedrigo and Moreau and Flores,
mostly Fedrigo; during the motocam shots I saw, Ekimov and
Steinhauser didn't seem like they were taking turns. At this
point, Moreau was virtual GC leader.

The gap was 2:10 when the break hit Mende at the bottom of
the final hill, the Cote de la Croix-Neuve with 5 km and
350m in climbing to go. Fedrigo, having done his job for
Moreau, dropped. I was surprised to see how nasty the climb
was. I'd be more surprised later. The bottom of the climb
was okay, the final 400m was okay, the middle 4 km was
tough, tough, tough. In any small group on a final nasty
climb you expect the Spanish guy to attack first and Flores
went with maybe 2 to go. He had maybe a 20m gap in a flash,
which may not sound like much but when you're going about 9
or 10 kph that's 8 seconds. Steinhauser wilted. Moreau
wilted. Ekimov clawed back and Flores couldn't drop him. You
know those dreams where your legs are moving through
molasses? That's what this looked like, though maybe a
nightmare is more like it. Ekimov cut the gap to 6 seconds,
then 4, then Flores upped it to 6, then it was back to 5.
Ekimov finally caught Flores inside the red kite but the
slope was frightful. Flores tried going to the right --
Ekimov followed. Flores went to the left -- Ekimov followed.
I wasn't sure if it was a tactic or they were paperboying by
need. Moreau grunted up and caught the two leaders then
Ekimov counter-attacked, if increasing your speed by 0.5 m/s
can be called an attack. Flores dropped, Moreau moved into
second, maybe 2 or 3 seconds back.

The top was a bit easier but not easy enough. Moreau made a
supreme final effort and caught Ekimov with less than 25 m
to go. Ekimov grunted in despair. Moreau said later that it
was a great victory, perhaps his greatest, a new birth, that
he'd never been so mentally strong in the face of adversity
and a 38-year-old guy who came back from retirement a couple
of years ago.

The remnants of the peleton dribbled in with about the same
2 minute gap they had at the bottom of the hill. Martinez
and Brochard had attacked them somewhere off camera and
came in a few seconds ahead. LANCE and Azevedo finished
together at +2:13.

the way Moreau won this, must be the French cycling
highlight of the year.

Thanks for the detailed response.

"Robert Chung" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:2hb3deFat4r5U1@uni-
berlin.de...

Quoted message said:

B. Lafferty said:

Lance Armstrong finished more than two minutes back and
was reported by AFP to be struggling on the final hill.
However, the American fared better than Britain's David
Millar, who did not finish, and Australian Cadel Evans,
who finished outside the time limit.

The camera was following the drama at the front of the
race among Flores, Ekimov, and Moreau. Only when those
guys had crossed the line did it switch back to the
survivors.

When I flipped the TV on, the 30-40 riders left in the
peloton were chasing a gang of 5 (Fedrigo and Moreau of
CA, Ullrich's max bud Steinhauser, Euskaltel's Iker
Flores, and Ekimov) at a bit under 3 minutes and 20 km
from the arrivee. The chase didn't seem particularly
motivated, and was led mostly by Cofidis. USPS was behind
them, LANCE phalanxed in maybe 10th place or thereabouts.
There must have been a crosswind and those 40 guys were
split into two echelons. The break was being driven by
Fedrigo and Moreau and Flores, mostly Fedrigo; during the
motocam shots I saw, Ekimov and Steinhauser didn't seem
like they were taking turns. At this point, Moreau was
virtual GC leader.

The gap was 2:10 when the break hit Mende at the bottom of
the final hill, the Cote de la Croix-Neuve with 5 km and
350m in climbing to go. Fedrigo, having done his job for
Moreau, dropped. I was surprised to see how nasty the
climb was. I'd be more surprised later. The bottom of the
climb was okay, the final 400m was okay, the middle 4 km
was tough, tough, tough. In any small group on a final
nasty climb you expect the Spanish guy to attack first and
Flores went with maybe 2 to go. He had maybe a 20m gap in
a flash, which may not sound like much but when you're
going about 9 or 10 kph that's 8 seconds. Steinhauser
wilted. Moreau wilted. Ekimov clawed back and Flores
couldn't drop him. You know those dreams where your legs
are moving through molasses? That's what this looked like,
though maybe a nightmare is more like it. Ekimov cut the
gap to 6 seconds, then 4, then Flores upped it to 6, then
it was back to 5. Ekimov finally caught Flores inside the
red kite but the slope was frightful. Flores tried going
to the right -- Ekimov followed. Flores went to the left
-- Ekimov followed. I wasn't sure if it was a tactic or
they were paperboying by need. Moreau grunted up and
caught the two leaders then Ekimov counter-attacked, if
increasing your speed by 0.5 m/s can be called an attack.
Flores dropped, Moreau moved into second, maybe 2 or 3
seconds back.

The top was a bit easier but not easy enough. Moreau made
a supreme final effort and caught Ekimov with less than 25
m to go. Ekimov grunted in despair. Moreau said later that
it was a great victory, perhaps his greatest, a new birth,
that he'd never been so mentally strong in the face of
adversity and a 38-year-old guy who came back from
retirement a couple of years ago.

The remnants of the peleton dribbled in with about the
same 2 minute gap they had at the bottom of the hill.
Martinez and Brochard had attacked them somewhere off
camera and came in a few seconds ahead. LANCE and Azevedo
finished together at +2:13.

Robert Chung said:

despair. Moreau said later that it was a great victory,
perhaps his greatest, a new birth, that he'd never been so
mentally strong in the face of adversity and a 38-year-old
guy who came back from retirement a couple of years ago.

Nicely put, Robert. Those sort of observations are
priceless.

P.