Tour de Lance STAGE 12

[PTRON]

[^]LANCE FINALLY MAKES A MOVE![^]

By Agence France Presse
This report filed July 16, 2004

Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor) took a massive step toward claiming a record sixth Tour de France title at La Mongie on Friday when he came second on the first summit finish, leaving main rival Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) more than three minutes adrift.
Armstrong finished a bike length behind the promising Ivan Basso (CSC), the 26-year-old Italian who two years ago won the white jersey for the Tour's best rider under the age of 25.
Frenchman Thomas Voeckler (Brioches la Boulangere) retained the race leader's yellow jersey but had to work hard to keep it on his shoulders on a day that saw the riders take a soaking as the rain came down before the final climb.
The 24-year-old French national champion, who led Armstrong by 9:35 overnight, came in 3:59 behind Basso and now leads second-placed Armstrong by 5:24 on the general classification.
Ullrich, who admitted he had struggled throughout the day in a performance that Armstrong called surprising, is 16th at 9:01, while another pre-race favorite, Phonak leader Tyler Hamilton, is 20th at 9:46.
As for Armstrong, who won here in 2002, the 32-year-old American said he had allowed Basso to win the stage because he is trying to help the Italian's mother in her fight against cancer.
"He's a hell of a good guy," Armstrong said. "We've been friends for a long time, and off the bike we're trying to work a little bit on his mom's situation, to try and see if she can win the fight against cancer.
"It's pretty special for me to have been out there with him, and the past week we haven't spoken about the race, we've spoken about his mom. It was a pleasure for me to let him (Basso) win, and he deserved to win. He was super strong."
The peloton took a soaking during the197.5km stage, which included two climbs from Castelsarrasin at the foot of the Pyrénées, as the rains came down ahead of the first climb to the Col d'Aspin. Despite storms and lightning on the summit finish of La Mongie, by the time the peloton led by Armstrong's U.S. Postal team had reached the foot of the mountain the sun had come out and the roads were dry.
The stage, which saw a number of attacks and retirements, came alive almost from the start when Frenchman Frederic Finot (R.A.G.T. Semences-MG Rover) and Swede Marcus Ljungqvist (Alessio-Bianchi) attacked the peloton.
They were soon joined by Luxembourg champion Kim Kirchen (Fassa Bortolo) and Belgian Wim Vansevenant (Lotto-Domo) and the foursome went on to build a lead of over five minutes before eventually being caught by the peloton at the 157km mark.
Postal was dominant throughout the day, with George Hincapie, Manuel Beltran and Portuguese Jose Azevedo taking turns at setting the pace and chasing down attacks.
However, Ullrich's T-Mobile team - at least on the first climb - was never far behind, with Andreas Klöden keeping in touch with the front of the peloton.
At the foot of La Mongie, Rabobank's Michael Rasmussen, who had attacked on the Col d'Aspin, was still in the lead, although the Dane was soon reeled in as Postal powered up the 15km climb, whose average gradient is 6 percent.
Moments later Armstrong's team cranked it up another notch, leaving Ullrich and Hamilton in their wake among a group of 38 riders that soon had nearly a 40-second deficit. Soon, only Armstrong, Basso and a handful of others were at the front as the mountain took its toll.
Carlos Sastre (CSC), the winner of the stage at Ax-les-Thermes last year, attacked, but the Spaniard was never allowed too much room. Then Armstrong went on the pursuit and in the final 2km of the climb he took the lead ahead of Basso, who pulled ahead of him in the final meters for his first Tour stage win.
Basso, considered a future winner of the Tour, said that since he had good legs he had to take his chance on a day that proved difficult for a lot of riders, including Ullrich.
"It's the first stage in the mountains, and there's plenty of racing still to be do

[Mike-in-Orange]

This was pretty amazing to watch this morning. Lance never actually attacked - his team just set such a blistering pace up the final climb that everybody just collapsed out the back! Lance never looked like he was even breathing hard, and Jan Ullrich looked like he was dying!

Tomorrow is going to be incredibly difficult with lots of climbing, including another summit finish. Should be great stuff. Oh, they also climb the Col du Portet d'Aspet, which is where Lance's team mate Fabio Casartelli lost his life in a high speed crash on the descent several years ago. Should be pretty emotional as always.