Lance Armstrong resumes his quest for a record-tying fifth straight Tour de France victory today after the first of the race's two rest days.
Armstrong leads Alexandre Vinokourov by 21 seconds and third-place Iban Mayo by 62 seconds. Francisco Mancebo, Tyler Hamilton, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso follow after Joseba Beloki crashed out of the race Monday. Beloki was the runner-up last.
Today's 11th stage is a mainly flat 153.5-kilometer (95-mile) trip to Toulouse from Narbonne.
In a July 8 story about Armstrong's quest for a fifth straight title, The Associated Press erroneously reported that he hoped to be wearing the leader's yellow jersey at the end of the next day's team time trial.
Armstrong hoped his team would win the time trial by a large enough margin for it to take the overall lead. He trailed teammate Victor Hugo Pena going into the trial and could have moved ahead of him to take the yellow jersey only if Pena had dropped out of the race or finished significantly behind the team's fifth-place rider.
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jul/07172003/sports/76120.asp
Armstrong leads Alexandre Vinokourov by 21 seconds and third-place Iban Mayo by 62 seconds. Francisco Mancebo, Tyler Hamilton, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso follow after Joseba Beloki crashed out of the race Monday. Beloki was the runner-up last.
Today's 11th stage is a mainly flat 153.5-kilometer (95-mile) trip to Toulouse from Narbonne.
In a July 8 story about Armstrong's quest for a fifth straight title, The Associated Press erroneously reported that he hoped to be wearing the leader's yellow jersey at the end of the next day's team time trial.
Armstrong hoped his team would win the time trial by a large enough margin for it to take the overall lead. He trailed teammate Victor Hugo Pena going into the trial and could have moved ahead of him to take the yellow jersey only if Pena had dropped out of the race or finished significantly behind the team's fifth-place rider.
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jul/07172003/sports/76120.asp
AX-LES-THERMES: Lance Armstrong says he is ready to mount a counter-attack against his main rival Jan Ullrich after the Tour de France leader lost more precious time to the German rider overnight.
Armstrong, who faded badly in Friday's time trial won by Ullrich, has had his overall lead cut to just 15 seconds after the German finished second in Saturday's 197.5km stage behind Spain's Carlos Sastre in the Pyrenees.
"Jan Ullrich is riding better and better everyday, but if the opportunity arises, we'll attack him," said the American, who is hoping for a record-equalling fifth Tour victory.
"I felt better than expected today. I didn't think I'd be super because yesterday was a deep effort and you pay for those, it takes days and days to recover.
"My team is riding well and our tactics were good, while I don't think Ullrich's team are very strong. Tomorrow will be a hard day but I hope I will be riding better."
Their duel has brought this year's Tour to life and even Armstrong admitted: "It's good for the race.
"It's exciting, and man, if we go into the final time trial with just a matter of seconds between us, there will be a lot of spectators watching the race."
After his setback on Friday, Armstrong was already heading into the weekend stages with his smallest overall lead since first winning the Tour in 1999.
In the past, Armstrong has always gained on his rivals in both the time trials and the mountains.
However, this year things are different, and they are not helped for the Texan by the dehydration which he found particularly hard on Friday.
The Tour de France has been raced under a hot sun and Armstrong seems to be suffering the effects more than Ullrich, who lies second overall.
"I had a classic dehydration problem in the time trial," Armstrong said. "I don't how it happened and I know it's the kind of thing you say when you lose, but it's the truth and I've just been trying to put up with it.
"The problem is that drinking water is not good enough, all you do is pee a lot. Water doesn't contain the right minerals and salts.
"You can't put those in your mouth, so you have to do IV's (intravenous drips) and have big bottles of saline, that's the only way of putting it back. What else are you going to do? Drink seven or eight litres of water? You'd be on the toilet for a year," he said.
Luckily for Armstrong, weather forecasts predict rain for tonight's difficult 14th stage to Loudenvielle-Le Louron.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2574790a1823,00.html
Armstrong, who faded badly in Friday's time trial won by Ullrich, has had his overall lead cut to just 15 seconds after the German finished second in Saturday's 197.5km stage behind Spain's Carlos Sastre in the Pyrenees.
"Jan Ullrich is riding better and better everyday, but if the opportunity arises, we'll attack him," said the American, who is hoping for a record-equalling fifth Tour victory.
"I felt better than expected today. I didn't think I'd be super because yesterday was a deep effort and you pay for those, it takes days and days to recover.
"My team is riding well and our tactics were good, while I don't think Ullrich's team are very strong. Tomorrow will be a hard day but I hope I will be riding better."
Their duel has brought this year's Tour to life and even Armstrong admitted: "It's good for the race.
"It's exciting, and man, if we go into the final time trial with just a matter of seconds between us, there will be a lot of spectators watching the race."
After his setback on Friday, Armstrong was already heading into the weekend stages with his smallest overall lead since first winning the Tour in 1999.
In the past, Armstrong has always gained on his rivals in both the time trials and the mountains.
However, this year things are different, and they are not helped for the Texan by the dehydration which he found particularly hard on Friday.
The Tour de France has been raced under a hot sun and Armstrong seems to be suffering the effects more than Ullrich, who lies second overall.
"I had a classic dehydration problem in the time trial," Armstrong said. "I don't how it happened and I know it's the kind of thing you say when you lose, but it's the truth and I've just been trying to put up with it.
"The problem is that drinking water is not good enough, all you do is pee a lot. Water doesn't contain the right minerals and salts.
"You can't put those in your mouth, so you have to do IV's (intravenous drips) and have big bottles of saline, that's the only way of putting it back. What else are you going to do? Drink seven or eight litres of water? You'd be on the toilet for a year," he said.
Luckily for Armstrong, weather forecasts predict rain for tonight's difficult 14th stage to Loudenvielle-Le Louron.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2574790a1823,00.html
