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Thread: Let the Countdown Begin

  1. #1
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    Let the Countdown Begin

    Saturday Week (July 3) starts the Tour de France, and Lance Armstrong goes for #6.

    Sure hope the dirtbag muslim terrorists in Europe don't screw-up the show.

  2. #2
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    It should be Lance in a blow out! He is looking a little thin right now though. I hope he hasn't gotten to thin to sustain himself for the next month.

    OLN has been ordered and I am ready!

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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    Quote Originally Posted by Dawgbitten
    It should be Lance in a blow out! He is looking a little thin right now though. I hope he hasn't gotten to thin to sustain himself for the next month.

    OLN has been ordered and I am ready!
    http://www.janullrich.de/

    This will be Lance's toughest Tour yet. His old nemesis, Jan Ullrich, has hooked up with his old Telecom team, and they are LOADED. His team last year was very weak. Telecom(now T-Mobile) is gunning for Lance:

    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?...ing&id=1828596

    This Tour de France is going to be BRUTAL! :rolleyes4 I can't wait.

    BTW, Lance has a hilarious cameo in the movie Dodgeball.

  4. #4
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    The four other riders who have won 5 tours fell apart trying for number 6....the last it was attempted in the mid 90's, 5 time winner Induran abandonded the tour on his 6th attempt. The odds are definately against Lance....however...if anyone can do it LANCE can. He has that rare ability, like a Michael Jordon who can rise to the challenge we it is needed. I think he gets it....#6.
    Also look out for American riders Tyler Hamilton (finished 4th with a broken collarbone in 03) and Levi Leipheimer to challenge for the yellow jersey. It would be great to have an all american podium in Paris.

  5. #5
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    Quote Originally Posted by LongtimeDawgfan
    The four other riders who have won 5 tours fell apart trying for number 6....the last it was attempted in the mid 90's, 5 time winner Induran abandonded the tour on his 6th attempt. The odds are definately against Lance....however...if anyone can do it LANCE can. He has that rare ability, like a Michael Jordon who can rise to the challenge we it is needed. I think he gets it....#6.
    Also look out for American riders Tyler Hamilton (finished 4th with a broken collarbone in 03) and Levi Leipheimer to challenge for the yellow jersey. It would be great to have an all american podium in Paris.
    IMHO, Indurain (Big Mig) was the most naturally gifted cyclist in the modern era. Ullrich is right up there. Remember, if it weren't for Lance, Ullrich would be going for 6.

    But, Lance is better. He's not as talented. He's just better. Lance is willing to outwork everybody. He's willing to put his body through hell in the off-season while Ullrich gets fat in Germany. The one thing that seperates Lance from Indurain and Ullrich is not talent. It's DESIRE.

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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin


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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    6th sense: Armstrong feeling strong on verge of run at the record



    11:26 AM CDT on Saturday, June 26, 2004

    By ANDREW HOOD / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

    Lance Armstrong has won the Tour de France five times in a row, but the sixth one might not be so easy.

    On Saturday, the 32-year-old part-time Austin resident will line up as the favorite, but motivated challengers, a tougher course, the weight of doping allegations and age could derail him from making history. "I'm not that old, I'm 32," Armstrong said. "I quit most of those early Tours I started, so I shouldn't count all of them. I'm still here, I'm still competitive and I think I can win another one."

    Last year, the cancer survivor endured attacks from all sides to join the Tour's five-win club with a sparse 61-second margin over rival Jan Ullrich, but the cycling world saw Armstrong's nerve-racking triumph not as a sign of supremacy but rather that the Texan's reign was coming to its end.

    Smelling blood, Ullrich – Armstrong's most serious threat – says the American looks beatable and goes to the start in Liège, Belgium, with a strong and motivated T-Mobile team.

    "I am determined to beat Armstrong this year," said Ullrich, a winner in 1997 but a runner-up five times. "I want to fight him man-to-man, and I don't want to be second again."

    Unlike other recent Tours that were little more than Armstrong-Ullrich duels, Armstrong will face another half-dozen major rivals nipping at his heels.

    Topping the list is Spanish rider Iban Mayo, an explosive climber who dropped Armstrong at Alpe d'Huez in last year's Tour and took nearly two minutes out of the Texan in a climbing time trial at the feared Mont Ventoux en route to winning the Dauphiné Libéré race this month.

    Other threats include former teammates Tyler Hamilton and Roberto Heras, Russian Denis Menchov and Italians Gilberto Simoni and Ivan Basso. All are expected to give Armstrong trouble in the steep climbs in the Pyrénées and Alps.

    A tougher course this year could give Armstrong problems, as well.

    To guarantee a tighter race, organizers packed all the mountain stages into the final half of the 20-stage, 2,105-mile Tour and took out one of the two long, flat time trials that typically favor Armstrong, and replaced it with a climbing test against the clock up the grueling Alpe d'Huez in the Tour's third week.

    While it's sure to keep fans glued to the television late into the Tour, Armstrong might have to wait until the penultimate stage for the final, flat 37.2-mile time trial to take control of the race.

    Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's longtime sport director with the U.S. Postal Service team, said Armstrong tweaked his training to reach his peak form just in time for the decisive final week.

    "I talk to Lance every day, and I just know he's ready," said Bruyneel, who shrugged off Armstrong's defeat to Mayo at Mont Ventoux. "I am convinced he will succeed again this year. What counts is the Tour, not the Dauphiné. Lance put in a lot of training after the Dauphiné and took the necessary step forward."



    A higher standard


    There's also troubling news away from the race course. A book published this month in France claims Armstrong's Tour victories may have been fueled by banned performance-enhancing drugs.

    Armstrong – who's never failed a doping test in his career – vehemently denied the claims made in the book, but his lawyers failed in a court bid in France to force the publishers to include a denial that he had taken performance-enhancing drugs.

    The final, perhaps most decisive hurdle is age.

    Each of the previous five-time winners failed in their runs for the elusive sixth Tour victory, succumbing to conditions much like Armstrong is facing now: keener rivals, harder courses and the overall weariness that comes from racing bicycles.

    Armstrong enters his 10th Tour a year older, and at 32 he's reached a significant benchmark in Tour history.

    In the past half century, only one rider has won the Tour older than 32 – Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk was 33 in 1980 – and none of the previous five-time winners won older than 31.

    Jacques Anquetil, the first five-time champion, capped out at 30. For Eddy Merckx, a Belgian who won five Tours in seven starts, his last victory came at 29. Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to win a Tour, was 30, and five-straight winner Miguel Indurain last won at 31.

    But those close to the cancer survivor turned sports icon say Armstrong has worked harder than ever to be ready for a chance to make history.

    "He wants to win this year bad," longtime coach and trainer Chris Carmichael said. "After what happened last year, he wants to return to the Lance we saw in 2000, 2001. The standard he holds for himself is higher than anyone can put on him."



    A will to win


    Armstrong is used to overcoming obstacles, whether it's a troubled background, his fight with cancer or persistent doping allegations.

    His dramatic victory in 2003 carved his name in cycling's elite circle. Despite the hurdles in this year's Tour, those close to Armstrong say his legendary determination will carry the day.

    "Any setback Lance has faced has made him stronger, from cancer to his crash," said Sean Yates, a former teammate and now director at rival Team CSC. "Everything is going well for him now: the bike, the money, the racing, being a superstar. He handles it all very well."

    And, more important, Armstrong put in the time on the bike. With the Tour's start a week away, Armstrong is confident he can succeed where others have failed.

    "I'm trying to focus on this one Tour," he said. "If I thought about six, I'd lose focus on this one. Now, do I think, Ah, this is an opportunity to break a record or do something that's never been done in 100-some-odd years? Sure."

    Winning against the odds is what Armstrong has been doing his whole career.

    Andrew Hood is a freelance writer who has covered the Tour de France since 1996.

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  8. #8
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    Now, y'all are talking! I have many obligations, but I will watch every minute of this year's tour that I can. I think OLN replays the day's coverage late at night. If so, I'll be up late watching it many nights.

    Last year was Lance's toughest tour and his narrowest of margins of victory. This year will be even tougher. US Postal is a strong team, probably still the strongest, but that margin has narrowed too. Ullrich, Hamilton and Iban Mayo will all give Armstrong a run for the yellow.

    In the past a rider seeking his 6th straight, Miguel Indaran, the last to try, all were completely crushed. That won't happen to Lance. He may not win his 6th straight, but he'll be competitive right down to Stage 19 and that critical time trial up Alp Duhuez, or however you pronounce that mountain's name.

    While it is true that the great riders, like Lance, are all millionaires with their sponsorships, endorsements and prize money, they don't act like the prima donna jerks of other professional sports. At heart, Lance is a good ole Texas boy, with his priorities straight. These guys are also some of the greatest athletes on Earth. Try riding a bike 120 miles at average speeds of 32-35 mph! Try it!

    Go Lance!

  9. #9
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    Greg LeMond, flippin' the bird to the frogs :


    When U.S. knocked the French off their bikes

    BY ROBERT HUGHES
    FLORIDA TODAY

    This weekend, Lance Armstrong goes for a record sixth straight Tour de France victory.


    He's dominated the event so long, it's easy to forget Americans were unheard-of at the storied event just a couple decades ago.

    The French dominated their event back then. But lately, they've disappeared from the top ranks and watched the once-mocked U.S. cyclists pedal past them.

    Greg LeMond turned the tables in the mid-1980s when he snatched the French's last chances to win their event -- on two occasions.

    He rode on the same team as French hero Bernard Hinault, who like Armstrong won five Tours before LeMond ended his reign in 1986.

    LeMond actually would have ended that reign in 1985, but was held back by the team's manager as he was about to pull away in the penultimate stage, on orders to let Hinault win his fifth title.

    Hinault said he'd help LeMond win the next year, but clearly was racing against him in '86, rationalizing that he was helping LeMond become a "true" champion.

    That year, LeMond led Hinault by a little over a minute going into the last stage in which the Frenchman could have taken the lead, a time trial in St. Etienne.

    It was exciting to be an American standing near the finish line that day, knowing there was little that could keep LeMond from winning the Tour.

    It was in the days before they had TV monitors, but an announcer was giving the time splits -- in French, of course.

    Not long after LeMond started, an announcement made the crowd roar in celebration.

    It took awhile for English words to get through that LeMond had crashed. That's what the huge French cheer was about.

    When the times from the first check point were given, the crowd cheered again. LeMond's spill enabled Hinault to make up some time.

    But moments later, the announcer gave the next split times and the crowd's roar was considerably weaker. At the next split, the cheers turned to grumbles.

    After pulling himself off the pavement, LeMond rode like a man possessed and ended up losing scant seconds to his rival. A few days later in Paris, he became the unlikeliest American hero, a winner of the Tour de France.

    It's a fair assumption LeMond would have won five Tours himself if his brother-in-law hadn't shot him while hunting rabbits the next April.

    The gunshot wounds kept him from the Tour for two years, and when LeMond came back to race again, he shocked the world as much as when Armstrong came back from cancer to win the Tour in 1999.

    In 1989, LeMond was in another one-on-one battle with a Frenchman that made the Hinault battle pale in comparison.

    The penultimate stage that year came on the very last day of the three-week event, and LeMond was down by almost a minute to Frenchman Laurent Fignon, who won the Tour twice between Hinault's last two wins.

    One minute should have been insurmountable, but LeMond -- with help from some technological advances the tradition-glued French ignored -- rode as if possessed, again.

    He ended up nipping Fignon by eight seconds for the closest finish ever in the 2,000-plus-mile race. And once again, he tore out the hearts of the French.

    The French have yet to recover. They haven't had one cyclist challenge for first place since, while America has a handful of stars ready to take over if Armstrong should falter. Contact Hughes at 242-3662 or rhughes@flatoday.net

  10. #10
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin


  11. #11
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    This year's Tour of Italy winner, Damiano Cunego, Simoni's teammate on SAECO, will also make some noise in France. If he has another big effort in him so soon, that is.

    Petacchi will win the sprinter's title. That guy is awesome the final 100-200 meters of a long race.

    The first 9-10 days, look for Armstrong to be off the pace. He doesn't like those long, flat courses. He just needs to stay in contact with the leaders, heading into the mountains and the key time trials.

  12. #12
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    Quote Originally Posted by dawg80
    This year's Tour of Italy winner, Damiano Cunego, Simoni's teammate on SAECO, will also make some noise in France. If he has another big effort in him so soon, that is.

    Petacchi will win the sprinter's title. That guy is awesome the final 100-200 meters of a long race.

    The first 9-10 days, look for Armstrong to be off the pace. He doesn't like those long, flat courses. He just needs to stay in contact with the leaders, heading into the mountains and the key time trials.
    Petacchi is the real deal. He has surpassed Cippolini. I sure wish the director of the Tour de France wasn't such a jacka$$. He hasn't let Cippolini ride in the tour for several years.

  13. #13
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    Tour de France -- Bigger, even, than the Super Bowl :

    http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5325759/

  14. #14
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    Anything "de France" sucks!!!

  15. #15
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    Re: Let the Countdown Begin

    Tour de Frog bookmakers call the odds :

    Armstrong ; Ullrich ; Mayo / Hamilton

    http://www.readabet.com/index.php/home/article/4974

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