Le Tour kicks off and Lance leads
The holiday season has arrived and the Tour de France is now rolling through the French countryside. The Tour comes to Grenoble early in the race, and we have a rest day next week in the city before the first high mountain test on Tuesday.
I was hoping that we'd see a close race from the start, but already Lance has showed us he's as well prepared as he's ever been. In the 19 kilometre first stage time-trial, he was two seconds off the pace on a stage where the stage winner, David Zabriskie, was taking a minute out of Vinokourov, Landis, Ullrich and friends. Only Lance remained competitive, and he was only a couple of seconds off the pace of the stage.
I followed the whole Dauphine Libere race this year, and Armstrong looked composed and strong. It was part of his training, and although he wasn't winning the stages, he was always near the front. We've seen from today's team time-trial, his team are one of the strongest in the race and they are there for one purpose, to protect Lance.
Lance also seems to have some luck on his side already. Jan Ullrich crashed and put his head through his team car windscreen on the day before the first stage - which must have affected his performance. Today, the yellow jersey David Zabriskie crashed in the last kilometres of the team time trial, and this may have cost his team the stage, and it certainly cost him the race lead.
It's difficult to bet on anyone other than Lance Armstrong winning this Tour de France, but hey, we knew that before the start of this Tour de France, didn't we?
I was hoping that we'd see a close race from the start, but already Lance has showed us he's as well prepared as he's ever been. In the 19 kilometre first stage time-trial, he was two seconds off the pace on a stage where the stage winner, David Zabriskie, was taking a minute out of Vinokourov, Landis, Ullrich and friends. Only Lance remained competitive, and he was only a couple of seconds off the pace of the stage.
I followed the whole Dauphine Libere race this year, and Armstrong looked composed and strong. It was part of his training, and although he wasn't winning the stages, he was always near the front. We've seen from today's team time-trial, his team are one of the strongest in the race and they are there for one purpose, to protect Lance.
Lance also seems to have some luck on his side already. Jan Ullrich crashed and put his head through his team car windscreen on the day before the first stage - which must have affected his performance. Today, the yellow jersey David Zabriskie crashed in the last kilometres of the team time trial, and this may have cost his team the stage, and it certainly cost him the race lead.
It's difficult to bet on anyone other than Lance Armstrong winning this Tour de France, but hey, we knew that before the start of this Tour de France, didn't we?
posted by Russell Standring at 6:30 PM
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