Armstrong SURGES against rivals leaves them trailing in mountains...moves into 2nd overall

GO LANCE GO!

By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer
July 16, 2004

AP - Jul 16, 12:42 pm EDT
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LA MONGIE, France (AP) -- Lance Armstrong took a big step toward a record sixth straight Tour de France crown on Friday by surging past key rivals on the first climb in the Pyrenees.

The Texan moved from sixth to second in the overall standings following a ride in which he was runner-up to stage winner Ivan Basso of Italy.

Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, Iban Mayo and Roberto Heras were among the pre-Tour contenders whose hopes of dethroning the five-time champion faded as Armstrong powered up the ascent ahead of them.

Riders started the 12th stage under blazing sunshine, then got doused by rain before emerging into sunny weather again on the last of two major climbs on the 122.7-mile trek from Castelsarrasin to the La Mongie ski station.

``It was a great day, especially with the weather,'' Armstrong said. ``First the heat, then the thunder, then the sun again. For the overall standings it is great.''

But he wasn't ready to declare victory over Ullrich, his German challenger. Another Pyrenean stage, the Alps and a final time trial await before the July 25 finish in Paris.

``Jan's not finished,'' Armstrong said. ``He starts slow and he's a tough guy who doesn't give up. He might have taken one on the chin today but he always comes back and is strong in the last week.''

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Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner, lost 2 minutes, 30 seconds to Armstrong -- a major setback. Hamilton gave up 3:27 while Heras was 2:57 behind. Iban Mayo of Spain was 1:03 back.

``I am disappointed today, of course,'' said Ullrich, a five-time Tour runner-up. ``It was actually going well until the rain. But I have a good team and we are not giving up.''

Armstrong's merciless performance on the ascent to the La Mongie ski station showed he will be hard to beat.

``Armstrong is the strongest man on this Tour,'' Basso said. ``I think he's still got gas in his tank.''

Armstrong is 5:24 behind French champion Thomas Voeckler, who struggled in the mountain stage but limited the damage by holding the yellow jersey.

Voeckler had been leading Armstrong by more than nine minutes before the grueling stage. He placed 41st on Friday, 3:59 behind Armstrong and Basso.

Armstrong is eyeing the second Pyrenean stage Saturday as another chance to further bury his rivals. If he triumphs and they falter again, the 127.7-mile route from Lannemezan to the Plateau de Beille could prove decisive for Armstrong.

``He stunned the favorites a bit today,'' said French rider Richard Virenque, who was 3:27. ``Tomorrow, I think he's going to strike a sword blow on this Tour.''

Basso, considered a possible future Tour winner, won a stage for the first time in his career. The 26-year-old cyclist captured the white jersey as the best young rider in 2002, when he placed 11th overall. He was seventh last year and hopes to win the showcase race in two to three years

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FIGEAC, France - Lance Armstrong leaned over the handlebars of his bike on Thursday morning in the cool shade of the U.S. ****** Service team bus and sighed.

"You know what they say, the high trees get the wind," he said.

Armstrong has won five straight Tour de France titles. He is the highest tree in cycling, and every day there is an army at his feet with little axes. There are European newspapers out to prove that his career has grown so tall only with extra help from the medicine cabinet. There are other cyclists, some certainly jealous of his success, who feed the doubt. There is a Tour organization eager to show it has no favoritism for the American who never loses.

"Nothing against the French, but we know that here in France, they're after us," Armstrong said. "That's what we have to live with and deal with every day."

The last few days, however, have been even stranger than most. On Wednesday, the day after the ****** team, and several other teams, were tested for drugs, Armstrong was called in again, one of a handful of riders selected for supposedly "random" testing after the stage. It seems coincidental that Armstrong would be one of a half-dozen randomly drawn from a peloton of 167, but that's what happened.

"It was definitely strange, but it wasn't the first time we've seen that," Armstrong said.

Then Thursday afternoon, the French newspaper Le Monde, which has been virulently anti-Armstrong for some time, published a question-and-answer interview with Greg LeMond, the only American aside from Armstrong to win the Tour de France. Armstrong and LeMond are not friends and this interview isn't going to make them any closer.

"Lance is ready to do whatever it takes to keep his secret," LeMond said. "But I don't know how he can continue to convince everyone of his innocence."

LeMond's main argument, seemingly, is that Armstrong can't be clean because he is better than everyone else and everyone else is dirty, in his opinion. There are a few holes in that argument - Armstrong has never tested positive for any performance-enhancing substance, for instance - but not enough holes to keep a French paper from printing the accusations.

"Greg LeMond was my idol as I grew up in cycling because he was a great champion and did amazing things on the bike," Armstrong responded. "I'm disappointed and dismayed that for the past four years, Greg has continued to question my performances and my character."

It is true that cycling has doping problems, but the Tour de France is one of the most rigorously tested events in the world. The use of erythropoietin (EPO), which boosts the body's ability to process oxygen, is still out there, however. Can anyone outside the ****** camp say with 100 percent certainty that Armstrong is clean? Probably not, but neither can anyone say he is dirty, although there is a long line that does so or tries to do that every day.

"Just this morning, for example, we had in the room a TV crew from France 3," Armstrong said at the team bus Thursday, just before he rolled to the start line. "After we left, (they) went to the owner of the hotel at the reception (desk), asking for our room list, trying to get into our rooms. They show up and ask sporting questions to our face, but as soon as we leave, they're digging in the rooms, looking for dirt.

"And if you had left a B-vitamin sitting there, that would be on TV. It would be a scandal. It's sensational TV. And the scary thing is that if they don't find anything and they get frustrated after a couple of months, who's to say they don't put something there and film it and say, `Look at what we've found.' We've got to deal with it."

Four riders have been ejected from the Tour this year - two for positive drug tests and two because they merely have charges pending against them in Italian courts. In much of Europe, and certainly in the Tour de France, the rule of thumb is guilty-until-proven-innocent.

One of Armstrong's teammates, Pavel Padrnos of the Czech Republic, is supposedly one subject of an investigation into drug use during the 2001 Tour of Italy. U.S. ******'s team director, Johan Bruyneel, says any potential charge is baseless, but it is possible the Tour could bounce Padrnos simply because his name has been linked.

It is justice through the looking glass, but that's the world of cycling, where clean tests count for nothing and indictments by a kangaroo court in a three-year-old case can rob you of your livelihood. If the same rules were applied to major-league baseball, Barry Bonds would be suspended right now.

"It's nothing against us," Armstrong said of his ****** team. "I think it's against the sport and the event. They see the sport as a target for that kind of stuff. It's an easy target, one that viewers could sit back and say, `Wow, I could believe that.' "

Maybe it is easier to believe than a cancer survivor who returns to win five straight Tours and is favored for a sixth. Maybe the tallest tree always draws the most attention.

Meanwhile, the race itself plows into the mountains of the Pyrenees on Friday and the race is nearing the point where it will be decided by the actions of the top riders. So far, there has been only talk, and Thursday there was far too much of that.

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