One five-time champ welcomes the Texan into the club with one day left.
By Associated Press
Published July 27, 2003
[AP photo]
Lance Armstrong leads the Tour de France by 1:16 heading into today's final stage.
NANTES, France - Lance Armstrong climbed the podium Saturday for a bouquet of flowers and the fresh yellow jersey signifying his overall lead in the Tour de France with one stage left.
Right then, five-time race champion Bernard Hinault leaned over and delivered the accolade Armstrong has been after since he began cycling. "Welcome to the club," the Frenchman said.
It truly is an exclusive group: Just four men have won the Tour five times and Armstrong is set to join them.
Staying steady on slick roads as his rival fell during a dramatic time trial, the 31-year-old Texan pretty much assured himself of a record-tying fifth straight title and a place in cycling's pantheon.
Never quite satisfied, Armstrong vowed he'll be back next year to chase an unprecedented sixth win in the sport's most prestigious race.
He beat challenger Jan Ullrich by 11 seconds in the 19th stage, stretching his overall lead to 1 minutes, 16 seconds and pretty much clinching victory by what would be his slimmest margin.
Armstrong, who came back from cancer to win the 1999 Tour, called this "absolutely the most difficult year for many reasons: physically not super, tactically some mistakes made.
"But this close one feels different and feels better than some of the others, or all of the others. It's very satisfying," he said.
Today's final stage, which ends in Paris, is traditionally a ceremonial ride in which no one challenges the overall leader. So barring misfortune Armstrong will match Miguel Indurain of Spain, Eddy Merckx of Belgium and Hinault and Jacques Anquetil of France as riders who have won five Tours since the race began in 1903. Only Indurain won them all consecutively.
Armstrong smiled broadly and thrust his right fist into the air as he ended his 30.4-mile ride. The gesture, he said, was because of "relief to have made it through a time trial that was very dangerous at the end and relief to have gotten that much closer to winning the Tour de France."
Any chance Ullrich had of catching him disappeared when the German tumbled to the ground in the rain.
About 20 miles into the individual race against the clock, Ullrich had a two-second edge on Armstrong. Shortly after Ullrich's wheels slid from under him as he went around a traffic circle. He slid across the road, ending up in soft red-and-white safety cushions.
He hopped back on but almost missed another turn just moments later because he was looking down, checking his bike for damage.
Ullrich attributed his crash to bad conditions. "I didn't go into the curve fast. There must have been a little oil on the road," he told German state TV.
Armstrong, told over his radio that Ullrich had fallen, slowed to make sure he didn't slip, too. The American finished third, one place ahead of Ullrich, who came back from two knee operations and a 2002 ban for using amphetamines.
Ullrich, the 1997 champion, almost certainly will be the runner-up for the fifth time and third time behind Armstrong.
Britain's David Millar won the stage in 54 minutes, 5 seconds, his average of 33.702 mph the second-fastest in Tour history. Tyler Hamilton, the American racing with a broken collarbone, was second in 54:14, followed by Armstrong in 54:19.
It's the first time during his streak of Tour triumphs that Armstrong didn't win the closing time trial. But perhaps that's fitting, given all the problems he faced the past three weeks.
He had a stomach flu before the July 5 start. He was bruised in a crash on the second day, then failed to shine in the Alps, where he usually dominates. He even needed to ride into a field, bouncing across sun-scorched grass, to avoid a crash in front of him.
"This Tour took a lot out of me," said Armstrong, who won each of the past four years by at least six minutes.
"This year was not acceptable," he said. "I don't plan on being this vulnerable next year, I really don't. I think that it was good for me to have a rough year. To be honest, to win by five or six minutes gets old, and you start to take certain things for granted. ... I won't make the same mistake again."
The turning point came Monday, when Armstrong fell off his bicycle after the handlebars were clipped by a spectator's bag. Armstrong recovered to win that stage in the Pyrenees.
Armstrong hailed Ullrich as a great rival.
"For the first time since I've raced him, he kept us up at night," he said. "Nobody makes me more motivated than Jan Ullrich. I don't know why. But in my opinion, he's a big champion."
