Stage 3 of the Tour de France – Armstrong steals time!
First, here's a link to the stage results from Velonews.com.
It’s amazing to me that in a flat stage the peloton let a general classification contender get away in the break and gain time. Other than the time trials, the mountain stages are all that were expected to matter for the GC. That makes today a really big day for Armstrong. If it took more energy than he’d expect to spend on a flat stage, that should be alright. As long as he holds up well in tomorrow’s team time trail, more flat stages to come will give him time to recover in the peloton without much chance of losing time so he’ll be ready when the Tour reaches the mountains.
It remains to be seen if Armstrong can truly contend for the top spot in the mountains at almost 38 years old. He didn't quite have the juice in Italy, but the goal of his training has once again been to peak in France. Nevertheless, an incredible four riders on team Astana are considered capable of winning the Tour (Contador, Armstrong, Kloden, and Leipheimer) and it's surprising the peloton would let him get away in the flats.
Cancellara and Tony Martin are not considered GC threats. That effectively gives Armstrong the early lead among GC threats now.
I can't decide if the press is making too much of a possible Astana inter-team rivalry or not. The way the Astana team is so incredibly stacked with top riders came as a big surprise to me given Armstrong’s stated goal of winning the Tour de France. Yet then he joined a team that has four Tour contenders including the man, Contador, many think is the favorite to win. Armstrong won all of his previous tours as the clear team leader on teams that were built around him. This year’s Astana is rather a bizarre way to build the team.
If Armstrong can't hang at the top in the mountains and Tour favorite Contador can, it won't matter. They'll talk about how they're focused on the team and they'll push to give Contador the yellow. Yet if Armstrong is strong in the mountains, stronger than he was in Italy, things could get messy. He said he was coming out of retirement to win the Tour and I can’t imagine him taking a back seat to Contador if he thinks he has a chance of winning it all. What happens if we get through a couple mountain stages and Armstrong and Contador are 1 and 2?
What are Armstrong’s chances? Well, it's going to come down to whether at almost 38 years old he can still do it. When he won his seventh Tour, he was the oldest man to win the Tour de France since 1948. That was four years ago. In the mountain stages in Italy he was often one of the top ten or fifteen climbers, but he was consistently not one of the top three. He will have to be stronger. If anyone can win at his age, it's Armstrong, but aside from maybe his first win coming back from cancer, it will easily be the most miraculous of his Tour wins.
As for today's stage winner, Cavendish may well be the best sprinter in the world.
It’s amazing to me that in a flat stage the peloton let a general classification contender get away in the break and gain time. Other than the time trials, the mountain stages are all that were expected to matter for the GC. That makes today a really big day for Armstrong. If it took more energy than he’d expect to spend on a flat stage, that should be alright. As long as he holds up well in tomorrow’s team time trail, more flat stages to come will give him time to recover in the peloton without much chance of losing time so he’ll be ready when the Tour reaches the mountains.
It remains to be seen if Armstrong can truly contend for the top spot in the mountains at almost 38 years old. He didn't quite have the juice in Italy, but the goal of his training has once again been to peak in France. Nevertheless, an incredible four riders on team Astana are considered capable of winning the Tour (Contador, Armstrong, Kloden, and Leipheimer) and it's surprising the peloton would let him get away in the flats.
Cancellara and Tony Martin are not considered GC threats. That effectively gives Armstrong the early lead among GC threats now.
I can't decide if the press is making too much of a possible Astana inter-team rivalry or not. The way the Astana team is so incredibly stacked with top riders came as a big surprise to me given Armstrong’s stated goal of winning the Tour de France. Yet then he joined a team that has four Tour contenders including the man, Contador, many think is the favorite to win. Armstrong won all of his previous tours as the clear team leader on teams that were built around him. This year’s Astana is rather a bizarre way to build the team.
If Armstrong can't hang at the top in the mountains and Tour favorite Contador can, it won't matter. They'll talk about how they're focused on the team and they'll push to give Contador the yellow. Yet if Armstrong is strong in the mountains, stronger than he was in Italy, things could get messy. He said he was coming out of retirement to win the Tour and I can’t imagine him taking a back seat to Contador if he thinks he has a chance of winning it all. What happens if we get through a couple mountain stages and Armstrong and Contador are 1 and 2?
What are Armstrong’s chances? Well, it's going to come down to whether at almost 38 years old he can still do it. When he won his seventh Tour, he was the oldest man to win the Tour de France since 1948. That was four years ago. In the mountain stages in Italy he was often one of the top ten or fifteen climbers, but he was consistently not one of the top three. He will have to be stronger. If anyone can win at his age, it's Armstrong, but aside from maybe his first win coming back from cancer, it will easily be the most miraculous of his Tour wins.
As for today's stage winner, Cavendish may well be the best sprinter in the world.
posted by Patrick at
6:12 PM
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