Stage 13

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Stage 13

Lannemezan-Plateau de Beille 205.5 km

Analysis

Today, it became clear that the reason the other riders were able to attack Armstrong yesterday was because he passed Azevedo before more of the riders had been dropped. He didn't make that mistake today. Lance stayed behind Azevedo until only Lance and Basso were still with him. Everyone else had been dropped. Then Lance laid down the law that he is still the Tour Boss and will almost certain win this Tour.

The usual attacking came at the start of the stage with Voigt fighting hard until he finally got in the break. Voigt and Rasmussen managed to stay off until the last climb to the finish. US Postal set the pace hard earlier to grind off the competition and stayed on top of it until Lance only had one competitor with him.

The big story isn't just who was still there at the finish but who wasn't. Zubeldia was the first or the pre-Tour favorites to resign today followed by Hamilton. Heras lost over 21 minutes today, Mayo dropped over 37 minutes, and Ullrich, doing best of Lance's pre-race favorites, only losing 2' 42". Lance and Ullrich are the only two pre-race favorites still in the top ten and Ullrich is 7 minutes down in 8th place. Wow, what a Tour. It is very likely this will be Ullrich's last year. It would be hard for even him to come back from this devistation.

Before the Tour, the rest of the current top ten riders were, at best, all dark horses. I guess you can say that the dark horses stampeded over the Tour favorites and this Tour will become known as the stampede of the dark horses. The last two days have really been amazing and Basso has to have been the biggest surprise with him being the only rider who can stay with Lance on two of the three most significant stages. Riis must be the happiest coach in the world right now and Hamilton is probably regretting leaving CSC because that could be him sitting ready to take over second place. Riis has definitely proved himself to be one of the best developmental coaches in the world two years in a row. If Basso is smart enough to stay with Riis next year, you better watch him. He could easily push Lance next year.

I would have to name Basso the most improved rider of the year and Riis the coach of the year. This should be a lesson to you that it is better to have a coach who will make you better and worth more money than to leave that coach for more money. I have known a lot of pro's who were all looking for a better coach to make them better races. As we would say here in America, "It is the coaching, stupid."

Have you noticed that the top KOM riders try to go on break in the stages with the most big climbs? That is the best way to win the KOM Title. You get off on break and just gobble up the points.

This Tour is almost over already. The Tour organizers failed to create a Tour that Lance can't win. All Lance has to do is not lose much time on Alpe de Huez (he should easily finish top three or better), not lose much time on the flat TT (he could easily win that), and not crash out of the race or get sick from something like food poisoning. He is still the Tour Boss and you know Discovery Channel is drooling over the next three years with Lance. Just thinking of him racing three more years is ominous. I can think of a lot of riders it probably gives a headache. :-)

Though, I do think he needs to take care of his legacy before he retires. I feel he is making the same mistake that Hinault and Indurain made by focusing on winning almost nothing but the Tour. The critics have really diminished their legacy because almost all they did win was the Tour. You should noticed that most critics still don't compare riders like Lance to Hinault and Indurain. They compare them to Eddy Merckx because Eddy was a complete rider winning a lot of the other races.

Based on what I have seen over the last 36 years of racing, if Lance doesn't start winning more of the other races, they will put him with Hinault and Indurain as one-race-horses. Lance is better than a one-race-horse and deserves better. My suggestion would be for him to spend the next three years winning as many of the classics as possible along with at least one more Tour. For example, he should focus on doing what only one other rider has done which is to win every classic at least once. Van Looey is the only rider to do this, even Merckx missed this achievement by one classic.

If Lance were to win the other two super Tours at least once each plus all the other classics and the Tour at least once more at the same time, he would do like Merckx and silence the critics. He needs to take care of his legacy before he leaves the road and he is good enough to do it. He would be a true Merckx type legend. It wouldn't hurt for Lance to also win one or two six-day races like Gent. AND it would be incredible fun watching him do this.

Tomorrow

The Carcassone-Nimes stage is 192.5 km but is so flat that there isn't one rated climb or KOM prime. You can bet the attacks will start early with a long break and the sprint teams fighting for the Points Title. This is one of the two last flat stages in this Tour so it should be heavily contested between the breaks and sprinters. It should be fast and fun.

Voeckler will wear the Yellow Jersey for at least two more stages and should get an award for the most stubborn rider in the Tour. He has fought very hard to keep the Yellow Jersey this long and should be able to finish in or close to the top five. It has been fun watching him hold off Lance's charges in the mountains with almost nothing but determination. He is a tough little rider.

The Tour is tactically almost over but don't go away. There have been so many surprises this year that you don't know what may happen between now and Paris. What a Tour.

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