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:[email hidden]...

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.