2002 Tour de France

[Music] [Music] hello I'm Gary I'm Mac and this is the story of the 2002 Tour de France starting here in Luxembourg the tour's first foreign start for four years in cycling terms of course it might as well have been Texas Lance Armstrong came into this race as a huge favorite to join the exclusive club of riders who won four tours and even more exclusive club riders it won four straight [Music] [Music] trying to win as many tours as Miguel and Eddie and Hunca teal and copy and these guys those aren't my motivations in life those aren't my motivations in sport my goal is to be happy and to be successful and to work hard and to and to earn my money and to prove that it can be done and that's a year-by-year thing on the subject of this year's thing Armstrong in public at least disagrees with those who were already printing up the lands makes it for t-shirts in preparation to Paris for some reason I think this will be the hardest of the of the last three last four I think this will be tough I think we'll see depth and team's depth in the field that we haven't seen before and that's why I just thankful that we have such a strong team because I think that you're gonna see the holidays and the calm is in the Modesto's the co Feliz is and you're gonna see strong teams with three or four guys and the climbs that they guide hard as an endurance event the tour is rivaled only by Armstrong's relationship with the French public they haven't exactly clashed him to their collective bosom over the course of three tour wins so it's unlikely that a fourth will make a difference it's sometimes frustrating because you see riders they accept right as they really cherish and love and cuddle and and scream for and it's the guys that in the group you say I don't ever want to be like that guy I mean it's just no offense but I want to be the guy that just keeps his mouth shut works hard true to his team true to his family true to his sport and gives a full effort and the wins the race that's the guy that I want to be I don't want to put a flower on my head or take a picture or or do a song a dance I just want to be a sportsman and when the biggest bike race in the world and that's what you kind of hope that the people on the road side say lookee there in French there was a chef beau look at the guy train harder than anybody else wanted it more than anybody else and he got it well the big question is whether anyone can stop Armstrong getting it for the fourth straight year and the pre-race consensus seems to be probably not but then people say that about every great Tour champion until the year that it actually happens and there are certainly riders in the race capable of rattling Armstrong's bottle cage [Music] [Music] hello and welcome to the 89th edition of the Tour de France which next year will celebrate his centenary now that may sound strange but of course the world war years interrupted the progress of this race we go back in fact to 1903 when the smoking chimney-sweep maurice garin won the very first Tour de France my goodness me what a long way this race has come it's now more popular than ever I'm for liquor joined of course by my pal Paul show in in commenting now as we look at this year's Tour de France it started in Luxembourg it hasn't been there since 1989 on that occasion pedo Delgado was the defending champion this year of course it's the American at Lance Armstrong and he's a hotter favor than ever for well before the start Armstrong is the number one favored I don't see anybody else challenging him but I actually asked him how he thought this was going to be this fourth attempt to try and win the event well he said the first win was really my comeback the second win was confirmation the third was absolutely just for pleasure the fourth one is going to be the most difficult one to win I think he's right and it is a very unusual course this year and we'll explain more of that in a moment but it's not just about Lance Armstrong for America this time around there are other riders now from America leading the foreign teams for example Tyler Amazon CSC from Denmark and you got Levi's life on a first tour for him and looking very good after his tour of Spain last year and also finishing well in the route du Sud just before the Tour de France starts he's a great challenger I think maybe just a little young to come to the Tour de France for the first time I hope to lead a team to get himself onto the podium but it will be interesting to follow his progress over the big mountain stages and of course in the individual time trials but let's not forget two other American riders two men riding for Team Telecom with the possibility of riding their own race kevin livingston and bobby julik yeah good point because of course yan ulrich not here out all year with injury and not having a very good season at all the top prologue is a bit like the first day of the cricket season there's no relying on the weather and a damp start in Luxembourg went one more worry for the riders on top of a tight technical cause with cobbled sections and a sharp climb to the finish as we join the action Cal may Santiago Botero one of the genuine challengers to Lance Armstrong was bearing down on there's the clock now so Santiago the term there were all right to worry about this man you best time and a good one 9 minutes and 12 seconds now back here behind the scenes here young man is passing that sucker on a drink and that's all very politely I think they're just saying no thanks a lot for the conference right mundis Trump's s is coming up to the line right now a very impressive time by him as well as we get another champion in the starting gate christophe Moro and drums ass has done another great ride near the lamprey boy it is going to be the best time now we are it's a little bit surprising a great time times I really didn't think that he was going to get inside the type of maternal well the organization normally provide a skin suit at yellow jersey kit above Armstrong's decide to stay with his team colors the former world champion the man has won the Tour de France three times it's his right and he's chosen now to give it his best shot Armstrong is a brilliant prologue he's proved to that in the past and he came back after his terrible ordeal we can say he won the prologue he went on to win the Tour de France once again he started in a big gear but look at this cadence he's up around a hundred one hundred and five revolutions for every minute this is quite remarkable as we rejoin in the front of the race you can see the performance of Christoph Moreau coming into the last 500 meters in a moment or so we should get the time check for Lance Armstrong the last man on the road of the opening prologue today this is going to be a special ride from La Jolla bear here he is going to challenge the leader board of raymundus rums s and look at the face set here you're the reason his trainer there's the time can he produced the sprint and shot us all we never thought that large a libertà win the prologue he is getting all the tears of fraud he's on top of the board nine ten point five two four time for the experts to leave I think well we're looking at Lance Armstrong now can he pull something special out of the bag and take away the prologue victory and the first yellow jersey in the Tour de France and this man is unbelievable when he turns up the power and we know he's got that power we still believe he could pit Burrell orange a litter on the line he is the only man left on course who can possibly do it now calibre is the leader rums ass is second but arrow is third David Miller is fourth column Raja is fifth that's the order in now can this man upset and peers either win or finish second this is going to be close and it might well then be the winning ride our song is coming down this finishing straight like a laundry is powering up all song everybody hears banging on the board and shouting his name as he races toward the line it is going to be closed it is going to be a desk and he's gonna get it bad thoughts honest eight point seven eight did he do that so confirmation both of the result and all his rivals worst fears Lance Armstrong with an opening day statement of intent still only two seconds ahead of Loras Oliver who put in an even better performance really when you consider what he was expected to do Lance congratulations on the yellow jersey are you going to defend it for the rest of the first half of the race I don't know we have to see it's we have to evaluate all options and see what happens with time bonuses and breakaways but we'll see tonight I have to talk to the team you're not gonna be dazzled by the great record of wearing the yellow jersey from start to finish that would be I think a mistake it's better to try to wear this jersey in Paris and and be smart along the way if you have to give it away for a few days then we'll do that so seven kilometers down just the 3270 and a half to go let's take a look at the route now as it's going to unfold over the next 22 days [Music] following the prologue there's another circular stage to make sure Luxembourg gets its money's worth get a quick detour into Germany where the telecom team will be under orders to paste their example into position for a home win inevitably after three Tour victories the route is littered with Good Omens for Lance Armstrong when the race finally hits France its in max Renn took the race lead for good in nineteen this time it's a stage start on the way into Champagne country providing that extra incentive for the day's winners the bottles on the team managers table the writers allowed to sniff the cork is a special treat the team time trial switches the focus from the stars to their supporting casts crash cost us postal time last year with the big illness excuse me on the team of the yellow jersey holder not to lose it for it [Music] Stage four marks the start of a high-speed chase across northern France for the sprinters dominating in the first C test of the tour lactic acid that is stage 9 is a 55 kilometers in de vigilancia tier I D of the strength of the defending champion and his challengers French air traffic control permitting the riders then head south to Porto the day's rest before the mountains since it's an antique off-white year it means the Pyrenees first and massive support manic climbers punishing first day over the cold obese and up to lhamo he is followed by a five climb monster on stage 12 finishing a plateau de Bay where Marco Pantani won four years ago there's usually a couple of days rest bite between the tyrannies and the Alps this year though features are returned to possibly the most feared climb in cycling long bond to Lance Armstrong gave this state away two years ago regretted it ever since will be desperate to take the win after the second rest day it's on to the Alps starting with lictors out we're ganna Laura famously cracked and lost the tour in 1998 then it's on to another mountain finish of luck lanyard via the call to Madeline where Armstrong fooled everyone that he was cracking last year depending on the mountain stages the time trial to mak dawn will either be the final showdown final flourish and all the survivors could relax and roll into packs [Music] hello Armstrong isn't the rider who gets carried away by romance very much he's usually fairly calculating when it comes to winning bike races still the inescapable fact was that he had the chance to go into history as the first rider since Roma mice in 1935 to wear the yellow jersey on the tour from start to finish the course is a hundred and ninety two point five kilometer loop around Luxembourg but the interesting thing to look at is the profile to third category climbs to fourth category climbs and the same uphill finish that had the veins bulging on the riders faces yesterday Lance Armstrong was doing his impression of a French presidential candidate at the start kissing babies well kissing his own and saying nothing of any real substance as the riders rolled out on the first road stage of the tour that was word from the US postal cam that Lance was happy to let his rivals make the running and they truly started to make it heading for the first sprint of the day was Armstrong's closest challenge along Galibier in the green jersey along with the two big rivals for the points competition eric zarbor and stuart O'Grady as arbol celebrating his 32nd birthday took it ahead of O'Grady and shallow bare gala bears to second time bonus made him now the race leader on the road by two tenths of a second the stage worm was turning into a nightmare for Christoph Moreau who'd managed to get involved in his second crash of the day and it really wasn't the kind of stage that you could afford to the action up at the front was relentless and after the initial three leaders were caught along with the bunch that have chased them down there was another attack with 9 kilometers left a group of six riders were trying to put significant distance between themselves and the main punch and the gaps surely isn't enough but there is the climb at around 2 kilometers slack go round one kilometre to go it's 2 kilometers uphill Liss there's the peloton now Landis is in a very good position because on his team is Lance Armstrong the race leader his instructions are simple go with the move but don't assist it to escape he has every reason to become the passenger and if he's got the legs he could even go alone 8 seconds to go welcome to deutsche telekom the team of an example the job is now ensembles birthday to hunt down the breakaway and get the present ready these guys are still surviving there are six men at the front of this bike race fill the last time take was just eight seconds that is not very much more than a hundred metres poor sorry there it is it's all over Telecom Deutsche Telekom have shut down the breakaway at the three kilometres to go after this wonderful days racing it is again all together those with the legs there are one or two behind now but basically all of the feel that matters is here look at the men lining up now in front of us they're example there is the champion of Germany Daniel ohand oh there is panini there is Zabul it's 20 seconds fill for the first man to cross the line 12 seconds for the man who finishes second and 8 seconds for the man who finishes third those points seconds are going to be so important at the end of today also moving forward Robbie McEwen your favourite from Australia he's got a huge chance today we can hang on that now the telecom boys are finding this climb is a little bit distressing because it's a lovely road surface it will turn right towards the top and then will that line up for the finish this is tremendous pace making being done here man doing its Andy Flickinger a Frenchman on the ag2r but he's got no team around him so he may as well move out he's done that a champion of Germany now danilot Hondo and they'll do it one by one here it's go as quickly as they can lose their position and hope that the last man left on the front is Eric zorbel but he's very closely marked by the sprinters and there's always the trouble that somebody will slip away and as a move on the right and it is again a lamprey rider giving it just about everything that is an unbelievable move by team lamprey coming out of the pack but I think it is Bella's volchok's of Latvia who's gone from the lamprey team now he's got the legs can he hang on because he hasn't got much more strength left there the peloton are still shadowboxing here if cat those legs must be screaming with pain now the telecom riders are still holding the back of the sprint as best they can well this could be the spiel of the day and richly deserved because we've seen a tremendous day of racing but you know there's still the acceleration of the sprinters now as Baden cookies trying to get in on the scene the other Australian newcomer to the Tour de France now the clash of swords the legs are going when it's too late he's got big tree on the line and sabor a McEwen take the second and third but a great great win there and we still think that the rider was Rubens butt-ugly our dog and there is the stage results not a one-two-three scene off on an international cycling of a Tolyatti is arbol McEwen with Oscar Freire day up contending in his first tour and Stewart O'Grady 6th and if the stage result was a surprise what about this but Tolyatti catapulted into the yellow jersey by the 22nd win bonus that is about as close as yarn auric is going to get to this year's race I think of course last year when the tour route was announced it must have seemed like a great idea Germany's one and only ever Tour de France winner the best man to promote it when it comes into the country of course that was before ya know Eric's knee injury ruled him out of the race and his recent pill-popping exploits at a party got him back in the headlines this week now we've heard ya know Eric's excuse which was that the drug-taking was purely recreational but a doubt that that cuts much ice with the team telecom management because the fact is that when he's in the peloton and fully fit ya know Rick is probably the most talented rider in it but to go with his one Tour victory he now has for second places and if you look at his weight problems and now what we should call I suppose personal indiscipline problems it's hard to imagine him ever again rivaling a man with the kind of ruthless dedication to his task that Lance Armstrong has all right enough of a lecture to yawn let's get back to the race at on the road and with eleven kilometers to go the action was pretty much an old German affair yen's Voight trying to stay away from the bunch to sneak a home win and team Telecom leading the chase determined to set up the same thing for our example this is going to be a rip-roaring charge into the line Ludo directions is in the middle there in the lamprey that the Belgian national former Belgian national champion Axl merck's was there there's the world champion as well Oscar Freire all of the big men are moving to the forward right now chaos it is at the front right now everybody wants to stay in 15th 20th place they don't want to touch their brakes one thing about riding at this moment in the stage of the Tour de France if you touch your brakes you can slide back to 30th or 40th place and in fact Eric Zabul in the green jersey just on the right hand side there seems to be a little bit too far back right now and he is actually older he's pushing down Hilo hondo forward there you see that move from the green jersey on their example he wants a Hondo to take him a little bit further forward he's using his teammates sensibly right now Frere is moving across now onto the wheel of the green jersey this is a question of who breaks first on who breaks last as they go around this nice little chicane for the moment still a bit of disorganization on the front end of the main field as we get one of the telecom riders looking back to see where the rest of the guys are with five kilometres to go well I haven't noticed the capture of the leader but I am going to presume now that he is he has been caught as we're watching here under the four kilometer banner the charge down into town these corners are very very tricky and precarious because everybody wants to hold their position you're leaning right into the corner getting the knee down as far as possible to lower your center of gravity and hopefully not lose the gap on the wheel in front of you right now lotto or in control it's a lot o telecom train at the moment we're touching speeds phil approaching 35 miles an hour right now it really is going to be a mad dash the yellow jersey is in second position the world champion is in fourth position the man who wears the green jersey there Eric Sowell is in seventh position everybody is battling for the wheels of the sprinters we're now looking to see when the red kite is going to appear and I think if my memory serves me correctly it's just after this bridge well Ludo Dixon hats off to the Belgian rider here who is trying to drag this young man of 23 years of age to his second stage win in his many days and he's forcing the yellow jersey he's got no more legs left and he's put him on the front which is where he should not be right now because as they go on from the finish there is still a left-handed about to the green jersey example is it a big moment for him now as he turns into the corner on the shoulder of God in the chewing the champion of Australia the a passionate moment took ey crash somebody's gone down there but it's not the to be expected as that is still coming he washed away what for the men to break through the center in greed [Music] so I for this one Freddy Rodriguez he's about seven men down Danny lo hago they need to be Jean de Matteo beneath we're the hunter all these that McCue it on his bed the green comes on the rides on Fred on the left with the queuing it's a trio champion has taken in us with the tsavo and the cure the runners-up so Oscar Freire a at the debut Tour de France stage win to his two World Championships just in case anyone thought they were flukes and afterwards he had a rainbow collar felt by Matranga Oscar painting on a collision formidable a day mayest know the Cersei's a aura on Segundo Stacy para de terre myojin que esta pensando stake on Kaiba so narrow por la noche no kanata pie in new momento piece of my Amarillo pero está Claro que si si por la Concha a blonde always approach on the second day and very much against the odds Rubens Batali RT stood on the podium in yellow having written intelligently at the front of the bunch all day you have to say deserved it well it wasn't a stage four lands today but for the man who reckoned they could sprint themselves into the race lead on the way from Metz of terpenes a hundred and seventy 4.5 kilometers with bonuses available at three sprints along the way as well as the finish of course now we're sweeping across this beautiful city of grass it'll sort the narrow down before we line up for the to a finish just down the side of the main that Metz to Paris motorway tell you what our examples a long way further back right now and robbing the Kurds up into third place right on his wheel is Fabio bell data there is Michael sandstone he's looking over his shoulder to see just exactly what the position is of Laurent shall I bear the yet custodian national champion is in a Yank cursor doing the dark blue jersey there but looks to me as if our example is an awful long way down right now this is going to be a real sprint for the line robbie hunters in there - he's going to try and do it this is a last-minute attack that's probably going to be a man like Nick Omata from coffee this a good move by him trying to surprise all of the sprinters coming off the front hitting them just at the right time in his Nico matter but he hasn't surprised anybody at all today he's just going off the front of the main pack when they're just read assembling behind him that will cause a bit of consternation for Team LA has caused a bit of disorganization squeezing through the graph there in the green jersey is Erik sorrel they're all over the road right now trying to organise themselves there are no teammates at all of our example he's having to count on the other sprinters right now hunter is there in fourth position there is the world champion Oscar Freire of the line on the right-hand side now this is coming from Alessio well unless you have a great sprinter too and it's even up and he's about three men back and I must say that there's no team got control of this race today they are all out of control because Telecom tried and couldn't lotto have got a little bit confused at watch out for Robbie McEwen he's got the third place position and that is the best right now here comes the swinging in his Honda taking him through break horn and it's very narrow they'll cite it now they've made it safely because it was dry and now they've got a chance to go for the gold the big sprinters are there we'll have to take up óscar Freire he'll have to take on the McEwan as group again because they're all there now Robbi hunter tried to lead out Cheviot teammate but he's got on the back way they said Fabio Maldonado is there a cookies in the center the little squab rider in white that's 20 apple cold tried to bring food too harsh up here this is going to be a most amazing finish because still the green jersey absorbent is deep in the peloton and within that petal talk to his brave top now zarbor making his move as push off desire to win this is the battle finish last yesterday finish 20 minutes behind its keep me this week is going to lead out an example for the line don't gonna lose this he's building up but that moment gets the win I waited and waited took my chance and this time I gotta cross through the barriers and I saw the árbol coming but uh we were tower we in slide uphill I thought I could hold it oh that's nice well the work questions asked about whether Robbie cut across their example in the final sprint but there was no protest from Team Telecom so he was safe to celebrate with his wife on her League and you and McEwen the rhyming baby making his tour debut at the age of less than two months if his dad keeps going he might make it onto the podium like our example son does every year so there's the stage result McEwan ZAR ball and another Aussie Baden cook in his first ever tour taking an impressive third place her example led the race coming into the day here's what he thought of the likelihood that his team might keep him there not so high because we see the circuit we trained on this road and it's hard in the wind stays like this it's a lot of headwind so it comes much more harder than and don't forget the our best free time trial list stay at home so I think the chance for use positive is lens I'm saying it's a little bit higher a victory in a team time trial is very very good for the team spirit it's really a performance that they accomplish together and the couple of days after a victory like that is really you can do amazing things with with a spirit like that to do is very important fish for us specially for Lance we can if you if you can do well who was will be able to get some extra time and on the main guys in general diversification we had last year we had a problem in the team time trial because of the rain so if it will be dry I will be very happy in my opinion I think we have a great team for the team time trial I think that we can barring accidents I think we can buy time there yeah well we all know the third France there's so much that can happen so we always have our guard up and it's gonna be very hard no matter what so we do have to concentrate on that but the team is riding well and Lance is riding super strong so we are confident and we hope we have good luck well the route today was 67 and a half kilometers from ebony to chateau-thierry heading mainly due west which would mean strong headwinds and punctuated by a testing climb at the halfway point our example in the telecom team were among the early starters who weren't even fast enough to post the best time of the first seven teams to go we pick it up now with the big five all out on the road CSC Tiscali have gone through the first checkpoint with the best time but fastest through the second despite losing a rider to a puncture or on say let's join Phil Liggett and Paul show it this should be a very interesting time coming in because it is almost certainly gonna wipe Faso Wardlow away completely by about a minute 45 seconds I would think if they've continued their progress will live they're sure nough bad luck too they've lost a man very early on today with a flat tire it happened at 24 kilometres in so they've been over 40 kilometres without a one man on the team predator but this time is going to be a sensational one and will be the time to beat I think of the shore on say have lived up to the reputation as a great team time trial outfit look at that time now 1:21 was the best time they're going to be inside at 120 for the ride big speak to the line required they have to put the stopwatch on the fifth man over the line but they've held it together very well despite the early problem every eight men home best time one and 19 and 49 for on same and now they can sit down and they'll take 20 minutes to finish this race now and they're gonna have to see just is it good enough to give them at the race leader this team we're looking at now Tyler Hamilton's team and the team of Laurel jelly bear have taken the risk of leaving one of their strong men behind that Michel sandstone he's just had a flat tire they have to keep the pressure on as much as possible because Laurent shallow bears dream at the moment is getting himself into the yellow jersey he started his day and the same time as Lance Armstrong in the overall standings they had a nine seconds advantage over the best place of the once' riders Igor Gonzales de gal Deanna as long as they can finish in front of once' and US Postal Service Lauren shall obey will be in yellow tonight just look at all of the riders in this magnificent US Postal team they are all still together and that I think Lancers put the blocks on a little bit to say let's just steady it down we don't have to win this race well it's not important for them to win this race the important thing is to stay in a reasonable amount of contact with CSC tiscali and of course with the once' squad because if one of these other teams were to take the yellow jersey he knows over the next few flat stages they are going to do everything to control it if for example orange Ally bear gets the yellow jersey tonight he will fight tooth and nail to keep himself in yellow for as long as absolutely possible but here they are the blue train they are indeed second best time at seven kilometres before the finish now I don't think and they can bridge the 38 seconds they were behind on say at that point but if they come over the line here second they finished fourth in this race last year by the way and a similar time is the worst they can expect second or third I think is the best but they're going to push themselves right to the living you see while is dropping off now job done they five to cross the line for the time Hecky Bubba's peeled off the farm thinking's of course the plants Armstrong finishes it with those five riders floyd landis also here and looking good as they drive up to the line they've just popped down into second place but they'll be coming across the line quite clearly in second place pretty fast with two teams are still to finish the arrival of US postal there be well satisfied with this day 1 2005 they pulled a lot back over the last 10 kilometres there in fact only losing just over 15 seconds to on say at the end of the day so they pull themselves back a good 20 seconds over the last 7 kilometres of racing or I would say a lot of that went down to George Hincapie Lance Armstrong and yeah to slap him off the important thing though is not losing today states but keeping the team together as a collective they will have high morale tonight they will be happy with this performance as so it looks like a third place finish for CSC bad luck had taken and perhaps off the leaderboard or was it the consistency of the other two who persisted a beat them third one 2035 and so the new mile short of the Tour de France will be Igor Gonzalez de Galliano in only his second Tour de France and here's the result that put him there the favourites US postal beaten into second place by 16 seconds CSC tiscali third and an excellent ride by David Miller's coffered his team to take fifth today was stage five of the Tour de France and coming into it they were encouraging science that we might have a bit of a race on our hands on say had confirmed Lance Armstrong's pre-race prediction that they'd be one of the strongest teams by being stronger than his in the team time trial the question now is can they use their strength in debt to launch a full-scale challenge on the defending champion in Vellore well through for the day round Pharos que es el trabajo en Punto no okay Mahalo muy bien ah who knows desde el coche Manolo dirigen do y otros dando a los padres no cod oh no su trabajo es realmente donde save el trabajo de un direct or no yo creo que lo hace más porque nadie Gragas Oh - Tyler no digo que la special a de la cantar lope or equipos es como un rally no yo soy el copilot Oh David en de las cosas pero que pone el fuerte que por ella tenía el que pone a toda la subida Riyaz el Piloto no yo Sol los pilotos los cos n todos los Muertos loss Kazan todo sacrificio ya al terminó puedes quando acaba la a la victoria sua la Frieda - es para pero ahora como director Deportivo el trabajo duro comienza cierto see me soon - difficile a son - jean de nosotros tenemos mucho samba Sione's yo creo que more de un paso importante sobre todo mental no koala la see colossians Paco de del equipo Yara Deb amor de seguir pensando en todo tu con nuestras envisions con nuestros ganas con nuestros sueños y es verdad castro ness a grin favorito pero que yo siempre do no Kel Seguin an favorito que nos permiten Allard MS sonar yo Soto's tenemos que sonar con ganar lay no and owns despues vamos a luchar un poquito Perea well today's route didn't look like much of a threat to on seis plans 195 flat kilometers and Swiss on to Rouen perfect to the sprinters called the kind of breakaway that often develops the day after a big stage like the team time trial when everyone's tired the unwelcome distinction of first rider to abandon the tour went to Tom Steel's than that a sprinter who's perhaps still suffering the after-effects of glandular fever and after an early crash we shopping on was it a bit of discomfort too refers from the race doctor after a couple of unsuccessful attempts a five-man breakaway did form and in it were Belgium's Ludo Dixon's and the estonian sprinter Yankee Sifu they were joined by Italy Stefano Casa Grande er Christoph edilene of France and Michael Sam stopped the Danish CSC rider whose puncture cost them the team time trial so this is all happening at 19 kilometres to go now the gap has just come through at 2 minutes and 23 seconds Maggie has a flat tire and as Paula said a tub and there's have been a terrific crash in the back here the cameras are now organized it quite a few riders are stunned down there a lot of the Oscar tail riders one of the lamprey riders on the far right of the road doesn't look good telling me good at all but this is a tremendous crash in high speed and that we don't know how it happened our cameras switching to the back of the race for this indicating a lot of riders were under serious pressure there's the national champion Nicola for Gandhi he's there there's a lamprey rider who is down and not looking very good at all he looks in serious difficulty and that in fact is Marco pin naughty bought your offers in there as well there 82 our leader he is also involved in that crash but I have to say Marco penalty is not looking very good G report the doctor is right there alongside him in the white shirt but this shows that the riders of the Tour de France at the moment serious pressure when a group goes down like that it shows that there is a lot of fatigue creeping in so in these last 15 kilometres of the race today it is in total disarray at the back and in fact the DDA ruse is trying to get away from the peloton and he had been joined by lon do for I don't ever see pictures of this because I'm not too sure we've got too many cameras left right now but two riders are ahead of the peloton the crowd continues to cheer here at just under 15 kilometres to go to the finish and that we are in fact passing through here the town where the great Jack amputee arrests in can calm Park and there he is this is in fact the gravestone of the great jack off the field and that's a signature on the right and died in 1987 and he wasn't that old really and gross brilliant ride in the Tour de France five times a winner 51 times he wore the leader's yellow jersey now this of course is not allowed and if the referee see these riders will be penalized both in time and money because rules are quite clear you cannot take shelter for more than 50 meters behind your team vehicle they are now under the 5 kilobits to go so they too are beginning the descent into the city of Rouen and Jean Dom working overtime to warn the riders about those nasty little bits of furniture in the center of the road but this year I think can only be the saving grace of the breakaway it's much easier to descend at speed in a small group than a big peloton they're all working and this the now the counter-attacking is going to come from the five in the front and they're not going to work together now it could be fatal to do that they need to keep the rhythm on if they start shadowboxing they're finished for the day sans dog I think will go soon he cannot afford a sprint finish he can't sprint and watch out for the manor back kassig lamda I think if anyone is going to because he proved today it is the Italian on the back of this line now Casa Grande is made he's moved again they're forcing cursive you to chase all of these little counter-attacks he's putting a lot of pressure now that move coming from sandstone he just put himself back on Persico again has to dig deep again he has to nail down these attacks one at a time they know he's the fastest man in the group but watch out the best time to attack right now would be for Ludo Dixon's to go straight over the top they're inside the final kilometer they've 30 seconds advantage over the main field they will survive today but watch out for the move coming by the young Frenchman because that's the time to go when they sat up he had to make the run he's the leader and Kersey Perez locked on the big splinter a chance to return to the top of you Tour de France for him and claim the third stage wig cassock his teeth but Kasich who saw him gun caribou straight into me has been dodging wheels and still holding on to third place now Cassadine has made the mistake Jersey pool won't come yet he try and we'll wait until the last possible moment but they've done a good one they've got him back in the lead so hip out the tummy but we're back in view now Casa Grande on the middle of our picture and now sandstone which is teased again to try and make amends for yesterday he goes for the last book the perfect person is going to take it off he'll get over Kersey puh Kersey pool is now clear and is gonna get the win but only just he gets it on the lion from Sam Scott Dixon Kazik lambda ed Elaine well it was close but for the first time this tour a breakaway stayed away with Yankee so - winning a low-speed chase at the line and his fellow escapees from the look on your face as you came across the line you had given that everything yeah everything and even a little bit more I was really I had nothing left when did you realize that it was just gonna be between you five well I I thought I start to thought since 25 kilometres to go then I I saw that we're going to make it and this is what Kerr suppose wind us to the overall standings absolutely nothing Igor Gonzales the gal diono leads four seconds ahead of his teammate Yoshi verbal Aki with Lance Armstrong another three seconds back [Music] three consecutive flat stages leading up to the individual time trial on stage nine nothing dramatic was likely to change in the race for the yellow jersey for the points competition though it could be crucial days rubbing accurate I don't think this one he's building office now judo penny is going to try ho great is going to get it but he takes he got it now the green comes on the rides are on the right thread on the left in McEwen it's the three awesome go for the lies and the world champion has taken it Oscar further with Azure bull and McEwen that the runners up the green jersey is the competition for the tour's hourly paid workers not just sprinters but hard men who come out every day to earn their points and there are two ways to get them but the finish points are awarded on a sliding scale to the first 25 riders across the line that's why we saw our example and Robbie McEwen fighting for sixth place yesterday it was worth 20 points there also points available out on the road at hot spots Prince six for the first man under the banner four for the second and two for the third so while the yellow jersey holder can sit quietly in the bunch on flat stages and just keep an eye on his rivals green jersey contenders and be out there working every stage the hardest working man in bike business the last six years the veneerings arbol who's won a record half a dozen green jerseys in a row last year he held up a strong challenge from steward O'Grady this year Robbie McEwen is trying to bring the run to an end he's out sprinted Zabul at the finish on the last three stages it's very close it Robbie and me and also the other Australian writers like lady are still still in shape and we see what's the next days so currently the points competition looks like this za balls lead is down to just 2 points after Robbie Burke you announce printed in yesterday the impressive Baden cook in his first tour is lying third and yesterday stage win has Yunker sifu ahead of steward O'Grady for the moment and the reason the next three days are so important is because after the time trial on stage 9 the tour head south to the mountains and there the sprinters won't be earning any points they'll be hanging on at the back now one final thing about the green jersey competition and it's this thing now it doesn't look very dangerous I mean you'd struggle to hijack a plane with it but according to the Tor organization this is an offensive weapon the problem is that pmu who sponsor the green jersey distribute hundreds of these things every day presumably so that fans can give the riders a big hand at the finish you left it from the studio audience however Robbie McEwen wasn't laughing the other day as the fans hung over the Barry Imran's waving these things in his path during the final sprint I've got hit with a couple of those in the arm got hit in the head by one got to be the skin off my arm that um yeah while scars I mean it's not today I feel like a little school kid going look my word myself but uh but you know it's like unknown 60-something kind air and people are healing I've got another one on my shoulder and lucky had a helmet on otherwise I could have a big big one across my head but uh you know I had to get away from the barriers in because I was scared that someone's gonna hit me in the face with a hand and I lose it that way rather than someone riding past me you know in pure speed well there's the stage six route just on two hundred kilometers to Alan song and there were a possible 53 green jersey points available six apiece for winning the three hotspot sprints and 35 for winning the stage well Robbie McEwen took the first six outs printings arbol who only picked up two points for third behind yawns furada and that four-point swing meant McEwen was now the leader on the road in the green jersey competition by two points a little before the first sprint had been the first crash of the day David Miller was caught up in it and suffered cuts to his arms and legs but he got back on and rejoined the main Bunch he will not take defeat lightly there's but cute though he's just passed out at you but he's over to the left of our picture about four men down I've noticed Farah is there as well and also Baden cookies right tucked into very close to a example the three Aussies are ganging up on him again what a superb approach the line this is by the Stars the tour him conclude all the exits now McEwan checks himself in the center screen there bacon cookies also up to the left over for a left of our picture to the right of a cure the peloton are out now I'm glad to me I think this is ambitious finish today Dixon's has got the front Dan'l on the looks over his shoulder he's looking for the whereabouts of zorbel as the sprint now starts and this is going to be a very very difficult bit it's Fabio bells Auto trying for the run here now he hasn't got the legs it's very very short right hand the Honda round his second place bizarre ball not quite there on the train just yet as our camera tries to catch up now balde also in trouble I think this is going to be the final run for the line now is the champion of Germany leading out here then to be jabbar Taylor panini heads orbble is there in 4th place the left of the picture 20 out of college right now Robbie Mattoon has got the we will watch out for Flair that fella is on the wheel of zorbel sambal he's leaning out the world champion McEwen is trying on the Left McEwen and going to be McEwing the game right on the lights ominous got him zarbor is taking him on the line that is how you say I'm still in this bike race so our example who started the day in green by just two points finished in green by seven after a short detour into second place out on the road I must say I'm very heavy no.2 in a stage on on this way but I think so you were right Bobby McGee one is from the wheel mostly from my wheel one of the fastest guys this year it's very hard for me to win when I start in front as we indicated at the top of the show all that excitement left the race for the yellow jersey completely untouched [Music] well there's today's obstacle course 176 kilometers from baño lawn to a branch a couple of fourth kateri climbs along the way and another 53 possible points on offer for the sprinters in the green jersey competition in yellow for the third day igor gonzalez de gaulle tiana of course would have a full complement of once' bodyguards including the man in second place behind him you say burble Aki well today's escape committee was three strong Anthony morale crédit Agricole domos leon Bambang frank Reni heir of the bonjour team between them they built up a lead of more than five minutes and in the process mocked up all the intermediate sprints no change in the green jersey competition out on the road no competition at all for the strangest shot of the day David a Chavarria working on his aerodynamics in advance of the time trial and it might have had something to do with the second strategy shot because it came just after H about air got a 25 mile an hour peck on the cheek from Roberto like up first crash of the day wasn't a serious one that left Jonathan Vaughters seriously adrift of the bunch his bike was more seriously damaged than he was Alessio driving the race on here now telecom willing to work hoping that zorbel can have those aging legs of his and the more stamina that the earth lesser aging legs up Oscar Ferreira and Robbie McEwen in the spin crack and this again is a situation to have a look and see if any of the riders who are high in the overall standings had been caught out number 12 therefore team Telecom is Ralph Alda he's a big worker again there Christophe angelou tow 82 our number 182 he is down it looks as if there's a large talk ready Agricole rider that may be Jonathan Vaughters again having a great got Paul Marco sir Fellini and the Sun bar is down Oscar Pereira has taken a very nasty fall now this is a man whose whole career has been dogged by physical problems and this is extremely sad but a nice back again it's his back that is given him the problems in the past there's somebody else right underneath him from lamprey down there that just popped his head up for the last minute that's that beeper then it appears it seems a lot of riders are down here and delay and Christophe Moreau 61 is down as well this is bad there's Jonathan Vaughters Stewie O'Grady is there as well I think on the left hand side you can see that a lot of men have gone down Frederic Bessie number 52 the crédit Agricole riders all here waiting for their leader and christoph morrow I think more dejected psychologically here Phil than anything else which is how many critical riders fell down because I don't think they're waiting for I think they must have been almost all riding together as they crashed obviously if morrow is down looking very cool and collected the rider on the right and Roger Lachey won't believe this attending all of his team Thriller looks as though he might be on his way but he's back and this is a serious problem for Oscar his back has been a problem and now he's looks as always give it a real good clout in that ditch he's a man I thought would be Capel of getting up this climb towards the finish and that is going to change the complete physiognomy of the race finish here right now because he's a tough guy at the end of the day Moreau is up and riding there's a guy down on the ground and I think that is Didier ruse in fact before this Didier roots the former national champion of France he's been involved in several crashes since the start and this one doesn't look too good the way he's holding his arm there right now it looks as if it might be a collarbone problem there well three days running let's hope that's the end of it now as we leave Larry hi desperate straight to the front as well the latest gabbi's 18 seconds anthony Moran won't know half of his team not half three quarters are all lying on the road and a couple of kilometers behind him Leonov and banas got to the front he may as well try something because they're coming very very low pressure despite another crash call that we're getting all this information from race radio the race referees Channel this is in French and you can see these guys now raising the white flag bear has gone down number 51 so again chaos and there are a lot of US postal jerseys there - this is a big rider well they've got him off down nearest and ik him off his little Armstrong well down as well he's not crashed but he had a slight problem here this is number one this is the defending champion right now he's inside two and a half kilometres to go Armstrong is up and riding the race referees car is by him this is why the Tour de France over the first 10 days is so very dangerous and precarious there was Georgie Hincapie but you know what Armstrong is going to fly up through this field he looked alright to me there was no problem to his bike at all and here's the last-minute attack well armed song has got to get off because there he'll lose time here this race will be split time today look at this US Postal Service today I'm going to ask my Lance Armstrong to pull him back into the main peloton downhill Honda on the front there and the white jersey the yellow jersey eagle Gonzales de Galliano was very front there's a lot of pressure at the back cause Lance Armstrong has been involved in an incident just a few moments ago three of those guys have been pulled back into the fall but there's a move going off the front right now by Mapei Oh Lance Armstrong apparently 15 seconds behind the flame pellet at the moment and this looks like Paige Amarillo is trying to slip away here for the map a team a might well supplied us with a surprise Brad McGee they're in second place it is going that the Sprint has been spoiled here by this hill for sure of 400 meters and I think this is petrol hurry oh and if it is in it doesn't matter who it is it's a map a rider who's going to get the sprint as he's being closed in by Bradley McGee McGee is trying to reach him he was the Malon supposed to lead out baden cook but he's too strong I think McGee might get his stageman here because he's closing very very quickly Petro Hario is beginning to crack as the sprint he starred in me I now and they said they kick behind hit love to know McGee is going to get the big Jimmy's life Bradley McGee and the Australian takes it on the line results that well well Australia have got the wind but by the man we didn't really expect it to he was supposed to lead out baby cook and he roamed the field off his wheels so the yellow jersey competition which was supposed to be in hibernation until the time trial is suddenly all activity and time gaps in fact it's all on say they've got the top seven places now with Lance Armstrong slipping back to 834 seconds behind Igor Gonzalez to Galliano I can't believe this is the biggest thing ever it was the biggest disappointment ever for Pedro or Rio thought he timed his burst to the line perfectly to deflate in the last 10 meters when he turned and saw Maggie powering past him yo creo que lastima pedo Palacios Dante's nunca SE como so no a circumstantial Oliveira me Sakuya was know for a salami no II intent are low [Music] resolution tremendous Turkey the word on Armstrong by the way is that he didn't actually come off in the crash just got blocked by a teammate who did the word from the US Postal Camp is that he'll be fit what should be a fascinating showdown the paper cause fallout of all of the crashes which are affecting the destiny of the riders in this race at the moment were losing most the rides because of broken bones right now this is oscar freire and as you say he's now out of the race and that's really sad and of course lance armstrong gets the inside page because it's the first time in four years portage he's been involved in any sort of an accident well he's written well over the last few years kept himself out of all kinds of incident and accident but in fact he didn't properly crash yesterday it was his teammate Roberto Harris who fell onto his back wheel Harris his handlebars were called in the wheel of Armstrong I'm from had to put his foot on the ground was delayed but managed to get up and started riding again but I think a little bit more scared than anything else yeah well he lost 27 seconds not a disaster when it just shows you how easily you can lose the Tour de France today's stage was the third longest of the tour just over two hundred and seventeen kilometers with three fourth category climbs and like yesterday the last of them on the run in which was likely to make things interesting big crowds out for Bastille Day big guns were out for the first intermediate sprint Robbie McEwen beat our example to it and that cut the Germans lead in the points competition to three the first successful attack of the day had seven men in it three Frenchman three Dutchman and a Latvian that was reversed Bella Voss chicks the French riders were all from different teams Stefan out of Delatour bourgeois Frank Renia and Sebastian Ino of crédit Agricole but it was the Dutch who made the break interesting Bravo banks Eric Decker who'd won stage 8 in the past two tours his young teammate cast and crew his arch rival surveys Carnarvon of the domo team as we join it they're simultaneously trying to psych each other out and stay away from the chasing pack another attack it looks like it's gone there again it could well be Canadian who's gone this long along a line of people just seeing a wonderful race here and there now a kilometer to go to forget the race behind they're racing now for 8th place in the peloton well frankly Rene's being the aggressive man of the Tour de France so far he's the most aggressive bike rider in the event since we Lent Luxembourg there are three Dutchmen in this group right now the leading group is seven men strong they have thrown absolute portion to the wind this afternoon they've launched attack after attack and it is finally going to come down to a sprint for the lime up the lobster mix is on the left hand side he's gone and I think he might have hit them hard well he's gone again off to the left Decker's hooked up to his rail who would it be frank rainy a the most aggressive rider the tour in his first Tour de France is riding third wheel and he's looking very promising they call him the Spider Man it's because leading up to the line now vulajin now comes Dekker on the left gonna be a tight sprint hitting a successful David Decker my no he his teammates that is an immense result so Gonzales de Gaulle Deanna will take a lead of 34 seconds over Armstrong into tomorrow's individual time trial probably the most important day of his career core Mazda me do minuto Elysee para de Armstrong primera cosa guste cree que puede que usted puede gana el control o segunda cosa treinta y siete segundos creo quiere saber de am strong bond a ser suficientes para darle las montañas problemas con strong contrast ora to raise yo tanto senator timbre yo sparrow ser la una y no hiding in the bunch today in fact no hiding at all it's the individual time trial [Music] [Music] well this is it this is the bite that Lance Armstrong will use in the individual time trial and strangely enough it weighs in quite heavy at 9 kilos but for Armstrong the most important thing is not weight its aerodynamics and rigidity by most of these bikes is made nearly all of carbon-fiber the tubes thick and flat to cut into the wind US Postal Service even have a fin that goes right under the saddle to reduce any friction with the wind at the back end of the machine Armstrong has opted for a full disc wheel that way the turbulence at the back end is reduced to a minimum the gears he's going to use are immense 56 or a 55 to chain ring at the front and an 11 to sprocket at the back also at the front he's going to have a carbon fiber wheel but this will have very thick rims and three spokes they've tried to make this machine as aerodynamic as possible and even the cables here for the brakes and the gears go right inside the tubes and come out wherever necessary but it's the front end of the bike where the rider becomes more aerodynamic it gets down onto these bars although these brakes don't look very good they'll work very nicely going around the corners but this is where aerodynamics comes to perfection right down here in the middle and I spoke to Chris Carmichael Lance's coach he told me Armstrong had been working very hard on the ABS and the back to keep him in the aerodynamic position for longer hopefully on the long drags uphill he will gain time over all of his rivals well perhaps more decisive than the inclines on this time trial route would be the homestretch 17 or so kilometers along the Brittany coast with the wind whipping in off the sea the best early time of one hour 2 minutes and 43 seconds was set by Hungary's Laszlo Boudreau gee when raymundus rums s came up the line within metres of catching to earlier starters it looked as though he might have beaten it but as it turned out he slipped into second by tenths of a second as we join it though Santiago Botero of calmate and Columbia is setting all the best split times this is really beginning to warm up as the top riders come out firing on all cylinders huge crowd shouting them along here now as Botero is heading up now for the other check here he should be just outside one to one to ten or something like that as he comes up to the line if he's held on to all of his gains out on the course and added a couple of seconds for he still looks very very good here and this is a man king of the mountains of the Tour de France who is now looking for the high finish in Paris as well it is looking at very good one 240 feet to beat and he's surely has done that but he's not thinking of what the drogue is done he's just afraid of what Armstrong will do behind him so he needs the best time possible here as he races up to the LIBOR the time I thought has just gone by he too has found this last six kilometres a bit of but it's still best time 1/2 18 for Santiago Botero well this is the man who everyone wants to see what kind of performance he's going to put in this afternoon over the last nine time trials that have been and the Tour de France Lance Armstrong has won seven of them he's aiming for his thirteenth stage win in a Tour de France and he gets it today it certainly would be lucky for him because no cyclists currently racing as one that more stages in a Tour de France there were three riders Cipollini Sabo and Armstrong all on 12 wins now here's the big news Sir Guy honcho heading up towards the finish now he was eight seconds behind a Santiago Botero with six kilometers to go has he kept those legs punching out this enormous pedaling gear he certainly looks as though he's moving in some for speed now he's looking to do a time of 1 to 18 if he's going to get it but I don't think he is born that time I think has slipped away yes it has it has so unsure coming in at the mall when he should hang on the second best time little bit more of a spritzer guy you're not quite there as he comes up to the line it's going to be a longer walk than he anticipated 102 36 for the moment second place for the former World Time Trial champion the caliber a problem with his bike as well as his helmet here's the situation replay for you now porn is it a flat tire I think the way he stopped it must be well is it further he's trying to take that back wheel but if you act it's going to take too long and the mechanic is going to come up as quickly as possible it looks as if he's got that stuck in there you sees actually trying to unscrew that himself and this is a very slow change for Laurent jelly bear this is your problem with the aerodynamic bikes the wheels and the and the quick release skewers have to be tightened down and the mechanic has gone back to the car right now this is lost Laurent jelly bear pretty close to 45 seconds right now the spare machine is up there and running but you know that really breaks the rhythm wants something like that happens the leader of the Tour de France five days in yellow Igor Gonzalez de Galliano is now underway and Armstrong looking for a thirteenth stage win in a Tour de France is keeping the rhythm going over that little rise and once he smells the finish he will squeeze that little bit more out of his body and Igor Gonzalez de Galliano is still the man in yellow and he is over half distance of the time trial so I think it's safe to assume pool unless he completely cracks up he's going to keep the race lead tonight by a few seconds I would think and it's going to be pretty dramatic than the first days in the mountains because we may well be looking at a huge Spanish attack there's the clock for you to see now and Counting Lance Armstrong he's very close to at the first or second in the time trial he would want it to be first as he comes up to the line now and that clock is going to tell him he is not going to win the time trial Santiago Berto has got a great scalp here as our song come the plain fact he's conceded a little bit more time on the approach they alive as front comes up he would be ten seconds down 1.2 29 for Armstrong well at that point the sheer drama of the day overloaded the French television circuits and the climax of the stage was lost to the world's live broadcasters in fact these are the only pictures of Igor gonzales de Gaulle Tiano crossing the line it didn't affect the result though he came in with a time of 102 37 good enough for fourth and good enough to keep him in the yellow jersey so Santiago Botero hands Lance Armstrong his first defeat in a Tour de France time trial for four years to take a dramatic stage nine well II can't lie and say I'm not disappointed with today because I'm a little disappointed see you intolerance when you it's Louie I want is the the capital on see in a suit a nación in a lagrimas por que muchos meses prepper ando esta - e un o muy bonito tanto para el equipo muy bonito para nosotros y bueno a Lansky kiss star muy bien entrances Maz marathon knob Larry a while ago the only way to win is to take back time and the only way to take back time is to it was two ways either they they crack and lose time or you have a great day and attack and in make up time so we'll see how things go [Music] 10 here - pow was a warm-up day really for the big action in the pyrenees which begins tomorrow last chance for the sprinters and the breakaway merchants to grab a bit of glory before the going gets seriously diagonal PO last stop before the mountains which meant it was the last real chance for the opportunist to stage an escape and for the sprinters to pick up any big points 35 on offer for the stage win on a flat stage and three intermediate sprints along the way with six four and two points for the first three riders under the banner well their example started the day just two points ahead of Robbie McEwen in the green jersey competition and at the first sprint McEwen beat him into second place with steward O'Grady a very close third that meant McCune and Zabul were now level on points it was a momentary frisson on race radio when word came through that Gonzales - gal diono had abandoned it was he girl's brother Alvaro had been struggling with a thigh injury there's only one boot arrow in the race though and he dropped off the back early in the stage with a puncture for a couple of Cal made teammates helped ace him back to the bunch on the rest day the great large ala Bear had announced that he was quitting at the end of the season for the second stage running his bike decided to take early retirement in fact he got through three by the end of the stage and it was a blisteringly fast stage which was surprising for the day before the pyrenees finally after several failed efforts a break of 11 riders though did manage to get away in it was Stuart O'Grady who took second place at the second sprint in first place at the third got enough to challenge the leaders handy points in the bag for the man who'd started the day fourth in the green jersey competition but there's the four leaders good wide roads now as we course our way into Pope had seen the arrival of the Tour de France on so many occasions always given us a great winner and as a movement it's coming by al gone out on trying to surprise everybody they need to respond oh great he's waiting for somebody else this is a dangerous thing to do well somebody's got to go and he might have done it here with eight to go because our Grady looked and didn't react now they've got to sort it out they've got time to go and recover their fourth Dixon's to take up the chase interesting to know Paul at the Frenchman Pino made absolutely no effort to go and chase down a Frenchman a rival team watch this now a perfect choice off the back wheel of Dixon's but waiting till O'Grady was on the front Dixon's in the best position to respond and didn't the Frenchman had no intention of responding and the one man he feared Stuart O'Grady it was in the right position or in a Grady's case the wrong position when he put the attack in this man is pedaling with absolute urgency trying to survive he stretches advantage right now the last time checked we got was 15 seconds over the race radio these long slight uphill drags into the outskirts of Po will shortly be put behind him when it comes onto the finishing place here in the Place de Verdun as we now look at the three chasers coming under three kilometers to go and if any they're losing ground to Patrice Al gone the last time check for the peloton we got was four minutes and 28 seconds and that we do believe that a chhabria is still ahead of them and racing for what would be in effect at the last place of the breakaway on the day which would be 11th this rider though is thinking off first and he is got it all under control 28 years of age fairly late on he turned pro as a road man in 1995 and he's now going to add a win in the Tour de France there's a few last turn before he enters the plasterer bird and that'll be for him the end of today's stage of the toil but this is going to be his victory now Patras alga is sprinting for the first French win of this year's Tour de France he read it well and he deserves it because he made the attack that shaped the final form and escaped on the last climb of the coat at doujin he won all of the climbs today he's gone second in the king of the mountains he doesn't matter about that he is the winner of the stage in Poe and the first Frenchman to do it now O'Grady could do his second place for the leading the youngest Frenchman get the lead here Frank Pino at 22 years of age the French can't go wrong today it's going to be a one to poor as the Frank Pinot now the young man he's looking over his shoulder he doesn't believe it he's annoyed because he isn't win but he can't believe he's finished second and if you're wondering why Stuart O'Grady didn't respond to alguns attack well here's his answer he ever ridden a road race legs are burning everyone's the same you know the first one we'll attack is always going to take the edge off the other ones and straight away you know you go young a negative thinking and I was trying to get the guys to to really pull along and that's raising you this is going to be a very very tight sprint indeed they're moving all over the road here on the left of our picture now Brad McGee swanned off as Baden cook starts to go for the line now Sowell it's coming - Robbie McEwen is on the salt will this is going to be touch and go here but I think bacon cook no McEwan on the line very very close he might well have got two places overs are appalled but his no doubt about one thing and the Australian McCune for the first time has got the green jersey for himself today it was a good day for O'Grady up into third in the points competition - but a better one for his aunty rival Robbie McEwen who now leads the green jersey race by a single point from her example this would have been working for the last few days and you know I was a few days ago at four days ago I was virtual green on the road and then at the finish I you know lost a few points through finishing third when Erik won and it took me another four days after that to get back on level terms now I knew I had to beat him here at the finish and I was able to do that and take a one-point lead so it's an honour to be able to wear the green jersey in the Tour and now we hit the mountains and the fun starts today marked the start of the tour marked - as the race at the Pyrenees in the certain knowledge the Pyrenees would retaliate stage 11 would be the first big test for the men chasing Lance Armstrong's title and of course for Armstrong himself you know there aren't many races that are improved by being slowed down as a general rule in sport faster is better in cycling no suffering beat speed and nothing produces more suffering and more spectacle than the Alps and the Pyrenees which is where we are today now of course the strongest man in the mountains the past three years has been the strongest man overall Lance Armstrong and he didn't get that way just bite in his shredded wheat [Music] while most riders are just getting out of winter training into their first races of the year Lance Armstrong is already riding the tour or at least what he considers to be the key stages of it by the time the race starts for real he'll have ridden climbs like today's maybe half a dozen times God help anything that gets in his way whether it's an avalanche or the advice of his team manager dad's for joining with the I'm still where you can right prepare your clothes and some tea and stuff what if I keep going you can't huh you cannot three meters of stone the guy says he can it's no way you can right no way this is that it's in my opinion essential to know the courses and not just to be able to say yes I know what the volunteer looks like or yes I know what la mochi or path of the bay or LeBlanc and Luke's like because I've done it before I did we did in the tour 93 I was there I did it it's not the same the approaches are different the roads have changed you know the climbs you do before are most likely not in the same order that you did them in 93 so it's important to go and see it exactly the way it is and then second of all and maybe even more importantly is it's fantastic training to spend four or five days there with such climbing in such hard days in my opinion is is one way to improve no rider in history has prepared for the tour with Armstrong's zeal and attention to detail but the benefits can obviously be seen on the podium in Paris but once you realize what he's doing there noticeable on the road to when Armstrong attacks like he attacked he on all Rick on out to Ed's last year it's in the knowledge of exactly where he is on the stage and what difficulties lie between him and the finish line not to diminish Armstrong's natural talent but it's that kind of knowledge could make the difference between winning and losing there's only one way to acquire it [Music] go down santanico Mack take the win the pool training in this weather nobody sees that we were about to see the results of it though on a route that took the riders over the second-most climbed mountain in Tour history the Colbert bisque and finished partway up the most climbed of the lot the tormal 8 along the way just to green jersey sprints for any sprinters who still had the legs to take them on the first attack came early 13 kilometers and in the break was Laura Shallah Bear who quickly left the others behind to ride over the Col de beast on his own and look very reminiscent of a stage in the pyrenees last year when fellow bear made a nero ik brake only to be overhauled by lance armstrong on the way to plaid a day of course lances to business like to believe in omens but nonetheless it was postal doing all the work at the front of a medium-size chasing group but also contained the yellow jersey and his other big rivals telecom were doing some chasing too with Robbie McEwen struggling at the back they were hoping to keep their man Erik Zabul at the front for just long enough to get some points at the second sprint of the day having gone up the colder be scanned the coldest Sulu a couple of riders came down heavily yen's Voytek crédit Agricole at the winner of stage seven Bradley McGee we've left a couple of sponsors logos on the tarmac in exchange for some nasty looking road burning as we join the action gala bear is still out front and hoping to avoid a rerun at last year's Pyrenean adventure [Applause] Zella Bert riding hopefully to a stage win if not the race Li because that's gone I think for him that wasn't his main intention today it wasn't of course to get a stage win and also by virtue of the fact he's ahead and gets maximum points at the finish he would also be pulling on the jersey as leader of the king of the mountains a beautiful sunny day a lone leader in the Tour de France the latest gap is three minutes and 19 seconds for the rider out front Laurent Jolla Burt has held them without gaining or losing a second for so many kilometres now and he still looks as though he struggling well let's hope that he will make it up that Valley there to at least the finishing language today thank for the I would suggest now for large Alaba is only two-thirds of the way up the colder tourmaline well tell you what there's a beautiful backdrop Phil and one that I used to get very scared of when I was a bike rider because when you saw the mountains starting to close around you knew there was only one way out and that was up and that's what all of these bike riders are thinking about right now for Lance Armstrong after the the individual time trial a couple of days ago this is his first real rendezvous at the Tour de France he's laid his foundations for victory over the last three years in the mountains more than anywhere else and it's nearly always been on the first day in the mountains I think that tactic make change today because I have a feeling Armstrong would wait for tomorrow stage which is a lot longer with a lot more repetition of climbing to do but the one man who wants to stay as close to possible to him is there in the yellow jersey is Igor Gonzales de Galliano at the start of the day they were separated by 26 seconds well we're looking at launch Alaba this wonderful cyclists and France has ridden so well today he's such a brilliant aggressive bike rider I'm not sure he can hang on to the finishing line we all hope he can looking at 3 minutes 11 seconds he is 20 kilometers or 12 miles from the finishing line so so close and it's a desperate moment 3 minutes 15 seconds for L'Oreal abhart looking better I think now than he was about 15 of miles ago well this is the valley of Campo and a beautiful little town of Santa Maria de Kamp on has its place in the annals of the Tour de France it was here in 1913 you jean-christophe came off the mountain ready to climb up a next one have broken his Forks and in the local forge he asked somebody to work the bellows while he repaired his own bicycle Forks and to get any assistance in those days was not allowed he was disqualified from the tour when he was the leader and the fact the force is now part of a museum in that that's an incredible story but this is the area where the history and the legends of the Tour de France have always been made the mountains are so dramatic they're dramatic as a backdrop and they're also dramatic as a racing terrain as Laurent jelly bear knows so well he's raced well in the Pyrenees in the past and last year did a similar escapade to this through the Pyrenees and tried to get himself the win at the top of the summit of the platter day but unfortunately he he wasn't able to do anything against the return to the top of Lance Armstrong on that day 20 kilometres to go for the US postal led a peloton containing the myojin and the stars of kelmer here too by the way paternal and severe their little severe baby face himself Christoph morrow nearest camera in the green behind him is Bobby julik who looking good today Bobby the Sun is now coming off the right shoulder of this great French rider launched a labert the gap three minutes 25 seconds he's pushing it out again this man never knows the words that give up he will fight to the end when he's around about four kilometers now from the real start of the final climb of the day the final climb of the day is twelve point eight kilometers the average gradient only works out at 7% but that I think as we get closer to the summit as where it is its steepest part and there the average gradient is 10% and that's where it would really start to kick in and the pain will start to appear in the riders minds well this the lovely town now as Santa Marie de Campo where you jean-christophe once snapped his Forks and was then disqualified because he got somebody to work the bellows why he forged a new pair that's not justice but that was in 1913 the rules were different then well the rules were different then these men have got to follow behind to change their machines and it's a much slicker organization that the teams have been leaked to early when riders used to sleep at the side of the road and there's some great stories if you ever want to read the history of the Tour de France of men actually being kidnapped to try and stop them winning the Tour de France and being set upon in the night as they tried to ride through the mountain passes none of that goes on now I don't think so Lauren's alibi now has only one thing on his mind that's the climb which is directly ahead of him he is holding and slightly gaining three minutes and 20 seconds so he just keeps it in that five-second window these boys keep the steady tempo going Ruby air and number nine there the big rider from Spain all now ready to ride alongside Lance Armstrong little Russian Rabobank riders there because Levi Leipheimer is here and looking good so he may have informed the riots put him in a good position as they start the assault on the finishing climb Igor Gonzalez de Galliano and his teammate Josh Sheila Pollock he is down there side by side and bilac he's been off he's on a different bike in fact he changed his bike in the end and you can see he's got no number on his frame now so he's got rid of all his puppies he hopes for the day his only problem now where's number one in this race Lance Armstrong just ten kilometers to go this isn't heroic performance today well he only lost anything at all and this is really very impressive because bear in mind this man phil was attacking after just 15 kilometres of racing today as soon as the race came out of the blocks jalleh bear was looking for the move he's equipped his bike with very special wheels today their aerodynamic wheels these wheels were put on for a special reason the reason was he wanted to get himself off the front and try and do a special exploit in the Pyrenees forest possibly his last attempt at the Tour de France because he's told the world that he will retire at the end of this year and he's doing a great ride and still holding on I'm sure the accelerations must come but they won't come I don't think until we get to the steeper part of the climb right because at the moment you may have noted le beurre still had his chain on the big chain wheel pedaling a heavy gear indeed and not not the sort of gear that he will pedal very very shortly here is a zorb or inspired ride today is dropping off the back now with joined batma Greek Kristoff Hmong John Patti's al gone they're all off the back and now as it gets really really tough and Lois and latts Lobo drove he was the other map a rider that who was part of the original escape earlier on they've all called it quits on the climb now they've stepped aside as the big players have started to turn the screw that little bit tighter and it's the boys of US Postal who are mounting the pace still over three minutes for a labor fee minutes ten seconds he can tick the kilometres off Mary's in single digits unfortunately the last six kilometers are at one in ten or ten percent that's painful that is hard slow and jelly bear has got to do something very special to survive today Phil because he's been on the attack for over a hundred and thirty kilometres the shoulders just rocking a little bit and this is Lauren brochure here well I never saw him come back into the race he was dropped on the obese he must have done but now I think he's going back again and from the leading group so he did a ferry ride to get into a position to even be left behind by the peloton today looking down at the selection being made here now a lot of riders have dropped away off the tail of this group including unfortunately Bradley McGee he wouldn't have been dropped if he hadn't have been injured on the descent of the fall of the corner in the descent rather after a fall on the coldest new law another rider going off the back here looks as though it's Michael Bogut's so he's gone and this is David Miller so he was in there but sadly the first time we see him he is losing contact from the bunch he's having a hard time it must be difficult to keep hold of the handlebars with that ripped rib that's giving him a lot of pain a problem with his intercostal muscles and when you get into a big race like the Tour de France no extra pain is required at all and it's a pity to see that David Millar is going off the back there he had said to us before the start of the Tour de France that he would have lost a bit of his time trialing ability Phil because he specially specially trained for the big mountain stages on the first day of the mountains he's losing contact with the Lance Armstrong group yes and not a big group not just a selection of a handful of riders which doesn't all well perhaps what we'll see and hope as we now see calibre continuing at he's still holding a three minute advantage he the bunch had just gone under that ten kilometer banner six miles as he is still about a kilometer and a half probably a full mile ahead on the road the spanish supporters here here to cheer on their men still saving something for this wonderful frenchman he's suffering now like he's probably well I also like he's never suffered before because he always tries to his to the top of his ability he knows what it's like to suffer he's been through this so many times in a 14-year career turning professional back in 1989 for stage victories in the Tour de France so most of those have been on the flat days two times he's won himself the stage on the 14th of July Bastille Day but this would be a great victory for him if he can hold them off today I don't think US Postal Service Phil are actually trying to pull him back they're just setting a nice steady tempo on the front Armstrong I feel his tactics are he's waiting to see what the others are going to do on this first day in the mountains [Applause] and Armstrong's team have been the team of the day they've controlled this race on the start they've kept the race leader on the defensive looking for a way out of the box in which they placed him and while up here this man isn't going to be the race leader by the end of the day but with a small time gap let's hope he can hang on to take the honors because he certainly been the man who deserved them today no Angela burr was the highest-placed Frenchman I think he still is the highest police veteran overall starting today four minutes and 18 seconds down if you can finish one and a half minutes ahead he'd be in the top five riders in the tour anyway when the French have a good word to describe this kind of fight rather than man we've been looking at for most of the afternoon Laurent jelly bet they call him a Gary a which means a warrior and he certainly is a warrior of the Tour de France because he's gone out on the attack on so many occasions we're now looking at lances men that was Ruby error just going through Armstrong still looking calm and collected Roberto Harris is just behind him harass a former winner of the Tour of Spain he actually has had a serious problem with his calf over the last few days the man who wears the yellow jersey must be wondering exactly what is going to happen Levi Leipheimer third overall in the tour of Spain last year the leader of the Rabobank squad right now and formerly he used to ride alongside the men in blue because he raced for US postal last year there was no place for him in the team this year because he has right after that brilliant ride in the tour Spain last year now it's his first time in the Tour de France and this a big test day for him back to the man who just wants to survive and get it over with he's an old hand in the Tour de France he's had the colored jerseys every one of them on his shoulders at some time or another and the two he's kept all the way to Paris the king of the mountains and the green jersey as best sprinter there aren't many cyclists in the world one the two extremes of the competitions definitely not but this man has done that and he's also won himself the Torah Spain as well and he's won so many stages in that unbelievable bite race and he's been able to win himself different kinds of races from the very start of the season in February right the way through to the end of the year George Hincapie doing a superb job today as he keeps the pace up at the front being followed here by a ruby era and then have asked the little climbers now look how lie they are there they just need to dance on the pedals when they get out of the saddle they've got no excess body weight whatsoever as we now see other riders moving up a1 we should watch out for Paul he crashed out last year when he broke his collarbone his even Bassel he's in the white jersey therefore Faso bought elope just on the right hand side this is happening at the rear there as yata slab Hakeem off he's done his job for the day he's slipping away from their main contenders as is Emanuel man yelling surprising to see him so close to the front of a state a mountain stage of the Tour de France but he was one of the men who went out on the early attack with Lauren's yellow bear when they formed a group of 11 men that went off the front and after that he survived and managed to stay in contact with the leading group but right now we are looking down at this group which is slowly which reducing itself in numbers and here's the first attack of the day the first attack from the yellow jersey group guessed it wouldn't surprise me it is in fact it's not a neo loot oh it's one of his teammates though from Jean de Latour who's launched the attack and this could be an interesting move it could well be long Lefevre who's gone clear as they start the move now they won't react to him the febray is on his way [Applause] you can see how US postal have certainly not responded at all to that attack coming out of the front they're not worried about these lesser riders moving off the front they are waiting to see if the attacks will come from Santiago Botero or Oscar Sevilla or even Robert alai CEQA I don't think in fact Armstrong wants to set a hard tempo to in fact pull back the Frenchman Laurence Oliver he will be looking at the men who stand a serious chance of beating him in the overall classification Lauren Lefevre off the front net for jean de la tour but you can see there's no panic at all in the main group they're not worried and Georgie Hincapie swings off their the jobs being done it's a question now of just trying to get his huge carcass up to the summit well he oh hang on well David Xperia's just been dropped from the peloton after his attacks earlier on today he was second over the cold or bisque normally Febvre will keep her to the job in hand try and get away from them they won't directly chase him down he's not a future winner of the Tour de France this year but Armstrong's Center bubier and now to lift the face and there he is down there it's beginning to get a little select group at the head of the bunch also down there to is there and recover levers yeah ruby era is setting the pace this is back to the front now as we see launch Alabam look over his shoulder try to stay away still looking very good that face doesn't often give the game away I thought he was telling us earlier he was finished but now he's ok this is David etch abrir he's been dropped and he's trying to pick his way through groups and George Hincapie going off on the writer think caught a glimpse there - sadly Bobby julik going off the back there he is just in front well Julie was hoping to ride well in this year's Tour de France and once again in the mountains having a hard time following the tempo set on the front by his former teammates Michael Bogart going out to the back for the second time and probably the last time Dario free ger as well going off the back right now this is when it's really starting to get grippy see here 1 or 2 on say riders coming off the back as well York yaks he who's done a lot of work for the team earlier on he's been off the back looking after his teammate Yoshi bourbon lucky now this is a bit of a safari off this is meant off the leader of Ibanez no com he's also cracked as we speak now on dried kibble air forth last year is still in this I see Laurent Lefevre has been picked up he's on the right of our picture this what have we got maybe 1520 it was very select riders now and Levi Leipheimer is still there on the left of our picture with the balding pate 225 now - no gel I feel inclined to cheer for Jolla Bay right now because we'd love him to win he deserves to win after attacking from the very start in fact he's only five point nine kilometres from the finish the tempo on the front there is being done by Lance Armstrong's peg ball leftenant there chechi would be era ruby era setting a very nice pace on the front no problem at all for arm summer he doesn't seem to be worried about pulling back Laurent shall I bear your Sheba below he is on his tail the yellow jersey still in very fine contact in fourth place eagle gonzales de Galliano they are all there for the moment all of the big names are there but it seems as if for our Kristoff morrow is going to the back to green jersey of credi Agricole in a bit of serious difficulty well pacemaking being done by postal spanish riders here are stretching at this group and to an awful long the line now looking down at the group there the yellow jersey still marking his man and below key on his shoulder as we see now the two Spanish pride is lining up behind Lance Armstrong it looks now like the end of Francis Moreau here he's also been dropped by the group and also going off is as a bell dia / s Kotova Oscar Telus Guardi and get back up to the ladies very shortly but they are finding out rather rapidly just at the moment David Millar sadly has gone as well he was in the group he's been dropped and if even Basso still in the group gets more than two minutes he'll be the next candidate for the leaders white jersey well going out of the pack this is Jose Xavier Gomez from calmate also going out to the back was that the Russian leader of ag2r butcher off so some big names going out of the back that's a very prized souvenir Armstrong taking off his hat and throwing it into the crowd now that'll be worth a few pop in a couple of years time [Applause] well we're now hearing that Tyler Hamilton is cracked as well and is being left who might get a shot of that also resharper ronk is in trouble so the pace that's being set by the US Postal domestics here from Spain is crippling the rest of the race but it's noted Paul that the two riders from Spain who said that any give trouble to Armstrong are still riding right at the front they're still there and they're still waiting for an opportunity roberto and i ii did not look very comfortable either just a few moments ago he would be the big hope for the crowd here who are resplendent in their orange jerseys and shirts and they were hoping that they was going to be the day for oscar telco study you can see the past flag at the side of the road there but i think the majority of the crowd willing this man on to win because this man has done an unbelievable exploit today punctually sounds like potato has got a problem in this room you might see it but I believe he is stopped by the roadside we're looking for him as we see Mauro Rhea fight his way back up to the tail of this group with we will look for him on the right I think as we go through there's the car stopped now he must be under Sun the shadow of the car I think but it's certainly trouble for the taro port as we now see this slider press on relentless another kiloliter ticked off as the spanish people here cheering on a Frenchman that's a tough move there for Volterra to try and pull himself back into the race and resharper rank also in difficulty right now if we look down there you can see there in the group is Sevilla we're looking further back and there's the yellow jersey the yellow jersey has cracked and he is slipping away from the lead look at the face on Sevilla and they need to stay in this group answer I'm talking to his troops there Phil he's egging them on he's encouraging them he's telling them exactly what tempo to set wait for it in the next three minutes Lance Armstrong will be in the Myo jaune of the Tour de France Igor Gonzales de Galliano started the day 26 seconds ahead and he's losing it fast with surprisingly Francisco man Sabo is in that group as well well I know though science always said his man that was on the left there but lucky and below key is still riding but they're slowly becoming outnumbered a great ride being done as well by Andre Gilliland of Kazakhstan still in that he's still in there still surviving manthe beau is here the yellow jersey has to survive now it's a Roberto Harris Harris has come to the front this man is the big mate of Lance Armstrong his teammates have done an unbelievable job at five kilometers to go like himer is no longer there they're five kilometres to go to the summit on dry kibble it looks as if he's going to crack now the copy this rider on the left-hand side Roberto Harris is lifting up the pace for Armstrong who slowly but surely is riding his way towards the yellow jersey and this is destruction time now only one a rider is left one rider on on safe versus what's left of US Postal this is a show of defiance now by Loki is hanging on to the coattails of Armstrong as our Roberto Harris is just lifting the pace too much for everyone except two men so it's one on one and bro Loki is the only man able to hang on to Armstrong it looks like they armed say Armada is crumbling there is Levi Leipheimer the leader of the Rabobank team he can see the yellow jersey eagle Gonzales de gal Deanna Gonzales de Galliano knows that his chances are slipping away this afternoon and Manolo signs was right to assume that your Sheba vilaça should be the lone leader just for the work the record book this man at five kilometers to go had a one minute and 20 seconds advantage over this chasing group of Armstrong Harris and Yoshi Barbour Loki Armstrong though has got an unbelievable team of climbers what a brilliant job done by chechu Riviera and then taken over by Roberto Harris he's got a huge bandage on his right calf muscle there but he's riding a great tempo for Lance today they are now just 56 seconds down on Laura and even be lucky looks to be having some difficulty to stay on the tailwheel there of Armstrong the first day in the mountains and Armstrong is all over this race again less than a minute now to catching la jolla bear I don't think he could survive with at least a three coming up are not gonna wipe him out at the leaderboard entirely he surely can hang on to something on this great day of racing Armstrong checking in there with Brunel - I think he probably wants to know where's the yellow jersey right now as head ass does all of the work for his teammates allowing Armstrong the option here to spit clear when he wants to he is riding this event so cool he's very cool talking to your hand bro Neil all the time bro Neil talking to his man slowly but surely explaining just exactly what the gap is right now all Eagle Gonzales the gal Dianna can do is ride his personal time trial to the finish and hope that he conserved 26 seconds I don't think he will right now Laurent djellaba is hoping that he can conserve the remainder of his advantage which is down to 38 seconds it's such a pity for this man he's put in a brilliant battle today and he's going to go through exactly the same scenario as he went through on the platter day last year he's going to see Lance Armstrong coming forward this time not alone but this time he will be with Roberto Harris and Yoshi Bobo Loki they're pulling all of the cars out of the gas right now because honest tail is Lance Armstrong they are there they can see this man at four kilometres Armstrong burlock II looks as always under pressure but he's hanging on her ass takes a good look at the man from his own country here as he pulls an American to the lead in the Tour de France inside for kilometres now the gap is 26 seconds this man looks here as though he's just gone through the shower as the perspiration tumbles off his face he golden salty Galliano with the other American Levi Leipheimer right behind him they're going to be still high on the overall classification but they are going to be scourge so much of what will come tomorrow from this man Lance Armstrong I've never seen a man chat so much with his team manager at the situation like this at the moment he's calm and collected he's just riding a very sensible race he's using his teammate and this year Roberto Harris is going to be absolutely superb last year he had a hard time coming through the mountains he was plagued by a tendinitis but this year we are looking at a very good and strong Roberto Harris he is going to be a huge ally for Lance Armstrong in the mountains Jalen bear looks over his shoulders he knows what is happening right now and he has taken a serious blow to his morale he thought for a few moments I think he was going to win this stage he's got himself a lot of points in the king of the mountains competition but he was hoping to win the first Pyrenean stage of this year's Tour de France well as they approached him the yellow jersey is now a minutes are four minutes behind Lance Armstrong the bull okie and harass and sober lucky who started a minute 23 behind his teammate is now climbing in the second place in the Tour de France Armstrong undoubtably clear for yellow when you crack on a climb like this you blow to absolute smithereens and that's exactly what's happened to Igor Gonzales de Galliano he has worn the yellow jersey now Phil since the team time trial the pressure of wearing the yellow jersey on your shoulders is unbelievable the press want to talk to you every day you can't sleep at night and right now it has been taken away from his shoulders they have now caught long syllabear there are four riders at the front of the race I wonder if Laura's yellow bear has got enough left in his body just to try and stay with Armstrong Harris is setting the tempo there there's a lone star flag of the side of the road and Armstrong quite content Phil just to sit there and let her us do the pace making there is nothing to gain a moment for below key even attempting to attack Armstrong even if he can't leave I'll being tailed by the myojin group here which is still a gathering strength as riders join igor gonzalez to galliano but now timed at 1 minute 10 seconds Eva picture there rival number 31 is Oscar severe but patello has not recovered from that problem he had down the road most unfortunate for the Columbia Angela burr has also cracked let's hope he can hang on for fourth place look at his face that really tells a picture he thought for a few moments he could hang on to the Train of Armstrong Harris and Sevilla he couldn't do that but this man was attacking from the very first kilometers of today's stage Roberto Harris on the front is doing the superb job for Lance Armstrong pacing him up this climb Armstrong has built himself a magnificent team for the Tour de France his team when they first came to the tour were criticized for not being strong right now I think they have got the advantage over on say who thought they were the strongest team on block to take on the Texan well it has been a demonstration V on belief here we've always thought Armstrong was riding a calculated tour now he's proved it he's still riding a calculated tour he's riding any instructions from his manager not wasting his ng doesn't need to apply any more pressure he never go to the front today except to win the stage because he's led his team gained all the time for him and now this man Harris being worth his weight in gold they're saying that the kumbaya job well it's coming back it was 110 it's now 4 so it may be floating its way Armstrong is conserving energy as best he can for the big day tomorrow on another time check coming in off race radio 57 seconds I think I'm more inclined to believe me 7 seconds because this man is going backwards there's no way looking at him he is coming forward to the group of Armstrong Armstrong's group looks strong look at the face this man thought he could hold on to Armstrong maybe for one more day but he's having to relinquish leadership of his team to your Shiva below key who is just managing to survive here with Lance Armstrong and Roberto Harris but even the locking seems to be having a hard time staying on the wheel of the man set in an unbelievable pace on the front Roberto Harris wearing number 3 2 2 1 the odds now to us posters against the odds a rider hopelessly outnumbered here Armstrong hasn't used any of his energy yet in making the pace up this fly but not surprising though burlock he tries one cheeky attack just a trance nearly staged for psychological result but somehow I can't see laughs allowing it that's very angry at this stage of the game and I think if we were to launch an attack we would see a huge violent counter-attack coming for Armstrong for the moment he is quite content to ride along in the slipstream of his teammate he may well even try and offer the victory to his teammate at the end of the day but the most important thing for these guys is for the victory to be in the u.s. poster camp the locky is sitting there and he bility of told to attack he's quite happy to be there the and flags are mixing at him with the fast flag to decide the road and it looks as if below key is having a hard time for actually staying on the world from the US Postal Service team go Lance on the torso of man that just ran past its pictured pictured Chihiro and choose here because the chimeric has being knocked out by the supporters of burlock II as they run alongside him so it's Spain and America as we race across French roads and this is a tremendous atmosphere here at the Tour de France and this poor man Lord shall I bear steadily going back he's ten seconds back as we speak but still riding this mountain in fourth place well this is what happens when the lights go out for our lawns elemér he was riding on morale before he still felt that he had the possibility of a win and once you realize that you are no longer going to win all the lights and sound goes out completely this is the group of the second heads of state of the Tour de France this year Raimundo Shrum SAS is in the blue and pink for lamprey on the front there the yellow jersey eagle gonzales de Galliano in there as well as posy Acevedo for on sake it's team of the men who are going to be the second place run as I think in this year's Tour de France because US Postal Service may well be climbing well up in the overall standings and Roberto Harris is doing himself a pretty nice job as well today 64 seconds the gap now it'll be one and a half before we get to the summit I'm sure of that as this ride up Roberto Harris is just storming up this mountain for Armstrong who still doesn't look as though he's made any effort whatsoever underneath the canopies now as we approach the village of La Mancha these canopies to stop the rock slides and the snow in the winter to keep them off the road as these riders now go to a corridor of orange shirts of the people from the past earlier of Spain all shouting upon a man in pink while it's the man in blue who is the coolest operator on the tour this day well right now they're into the berries this is the safest part of the course right now a few moments ago it was just a corridor of people and noise for Armstrong Paris and Yoshi burble okey this is Laurent jela bet by the way he's around about 51 seconds behind even Basso in fact counter-attacked the yellow jersey group a few moments ago and he is caught jelly bear he is in fourth place on the road and this is the next white jersey after David Miller I think in the tour this is another super performance but it's all being acted behind at the real center stage here it is that I suppose you notice then there that was a terrific acceleration that came from her ass I thought he cracked Boll okey but burlock he has come back on Armstrong that will not and the pressure is still waiting he's waiting to see the banner I think for the finish and then I expect him to shoot away now where does Lawrence caliber find these legs from he's Hong Kong tabasco and he's hanging on to fifth place on the stage this is the group behind Biogen he's lost the lead now as we head up with the leaders inside one kilometer to go as we come up towards that kite sixty-eight seconds to the myau jaune now where does Landsat launch at the finish and attack well I think he's going to wait until the very last moment he said he didn't want to do anything dramatic today he just wanted to see how everybody else reacted the attacks never came from the climbers on the first day in the mountains men like Robert or like Sakura in serious difficulty the most unfortunate man there really is Santiago Botero who had a crash he had a puncture at the side of the road there but right now the answer is I think Armstrong will wait until the last four or five hundred meters Gonzales de Galliano in serious difficulty now he can't stay with the other contenders and Acevedo staying alongside him trying to keep him in a top five position seven days in yellow it's all but a dream now for Igor Gonzalez de Galliano as we see the only man likely to challenge our song now to see Bob Milwaukee hanging on it's sad when you see the Maya Shawn in trouble but he's had a good run for his money was always seen as the man who one day would lose that yellow jersey as we see now shall over being swept up by this rather large group of riders Gela bell has gone to the limit today and I don't think there's anything more left in the tank backed off Roberto Harris still dragging his captain to the summit and blocky still hanging on to the Express well this has been an unbelievable piece of teamwork by Roberto Harris in first position there right now an Armstrong so far has not had to make an effort himself at all he has a brilliant team here at the Tour de France all nine riders are still there and intact here now is counting on one of the best climbers in the world Roberto Harris a winner of the Vuelta a Espana he now is just pacing Armstrong up to the finish Armstrong looks across the roads of forced Pilate to come to the front they want to make sure they don't get caught out by a last-minute attacked by the Spaniard sorry about the pictures there but a back to normal now Armstrong is just maneuvering go-lucky into number 2 position to ride him out of the race in the race for first place he is watched by lucky all day long dov'è made him go second up behind her ass and he's waiting till he seized the moment to attack and he's going to win by two seconds she's gonna wait and see if the Loki attacks verse Bellaire is the time to the miles on the yellow jersey at the start of the day is a minute and 23 seconds behind right now exactly what Pilate was behind the MIOSHA on this morning I mean in 23 sober Loki climbs his second overall in the Tour de France but he's still going to be a minute 23 behind the new leader I would think they saw a few seconds behind the new leader glance arse on now inside of the line below key still telling them a win here he's still proud enough to say look this is a finish in front of Spanish people and he's going to give it his best shot her ass I think of to harass it only the other there he would love to give this victory to Roberta Harris but that's not the scenario obviously you're Shima by law he didn't read the script in the started a listen to move by Armstrong he's going for the win well he's dug deep he looks over his shoulder there's really not a strong enough reaction from Milwaukee Milwaukee is desperate here but Wallace would fight he has put up but now it's all everything he's got unleashed in those legs he's 13 stage within a Tour de France the other current cyclist on the circuit art store that wins the day claims again on the first day in the mountains and the waiting for him to go the fleece he's the new leader of the tour but it was hard look how hard it was for the lucky over the last 50 meters he is cracked I think more psychologically than anything else this man waited till the last possible moment his teammate Roberta Harris will have crossed the line in third position but the yellow jersey today has completely and utterly crumble on the side of the road as we look here at the pass Lancer from the only time I think he's seriously turned at peddling anger was in the last hundred meters today his team won the stage for him glance just finished it off in the best possible tradition will a finish that was supposed to be easy has certainly caused some serious time differences an Armstrong didn't really race as hard as he could have done I think this is on dry kibble ever and the yellow jersey is in the finishing straight right now with laurels yellow bear Jose Acevedo and ego Gonzales de Galliano last year's fourth place finisher over a minute and a half behind on the climb a great great cheer for Jalapa as he comes in at a minute 47 and the yellow jersey has conceded virtually two minutes as he crosses the line today and as you can see from the caption Lance Armstrong took seven seconds off his savable locky the space of about 40 meters at the finish line he was second ahead of Roberto whereas who did all the pace making even Basso the young Italian rider climbed impressively to finish seventh with Igor Gonzales de Galliano eleventh losing one minute 54 and the yellow jersey well we might have seen it coming but it was no less impressive for that Lance Armstrong launching a decisive attack on the first big day in the mountains for the fourth year running it's 13-step we talked about trying to win the stage and possibly taking the jersey but it was never a moment where we said okay let's go I mean that the team just started pulling at the bottom of the Oh be scanned everybody was great today and and and I employed had a little bit of a problem but the team was super the way the race is still open you know this is the tour so if you have a bad day you lose you know anywhere from two to twenty minutes and in one stage so you have to stay on top of it and it's still open and just a roundoff the first day in the mountains Lance is also up to third in the king of the mountains competition patrice al gore leads it by the way and if you're wondering how is because al gore built up most of his points over small climbs in the first week [Music] and after day 1 in the pyrenees day 2 though was twice as tough 3 helicopter ride and offer to anyone brave enough to take it on and the tour's first Pyrenean stage may have looked hard but only until you turn the page of the official race guide and clock today's stage 5 vicious climbs spread over 195 kilometers and finishing with the worst of the lot up here to plateau de Bay at an altitude of almost 1,800 meters before the gradient kicked in though there was some early sprint action Robbie McEwen took it ahead of her example to cut the Germans lead in the green jersey competition to just one point for the second day running loredana berté chanced his leg and was first over the second climb of the day behind him the peloton paid rolling tribute at the memorial - Fabio Qasar telly the young Italian rider who died in a crash there in 1995 the mood of respect didn't last long though as christophe moreau and Carlos sash got involved in a franco-spanish debate about the European single currency as we join the race yellow bear has been joined by Lauren do foe of gondola tour and on say's Isidro knows al there's 14 kilometers to go and the chase is on these three leaders right now Phil have an advantage of 2 minutes and 27 seconds and here's a move coming from on sake well Armstrong is not panicked at all right now in fact I would think Roberto Harris is riding in third or fourth position they're just behind Armstrong he will wait until the last possible moment this is chuh chuh chuh chuh or hubiera as Lance likes to call him jose-luis Riviera on the front Harris is there on the left hand side you see mobility is very close in in the pink jersey the blue and pink jersey is a right mundus room says now he is very high in the overall standings at 4th place at the back there is lore embrasure on the left hand side there is Dario free go a lot of men are suffering and as we go now to an attack by La Jolla burr at the front he knows they are coming the last time check was a minute 50 and he's had to go now is he going to be wiped away in sight of the finish again but he's going to give it his best shot but a tough bike rider this as he could see the other guys were weakening he could feel that the time was slowly but surely coming back from the main field to himself so he decides to go out alone it'll be a hard call for him to survive and it depends just exactly how much reserves he's got in those big thighs of his it's 151 back to the yellow tee group which is being led by Lance Armstrong's teammates Jose Luis Oliviero this is the pain now at the back of the course here and once a game you're seeing riders crack wide open looks like my second here as well the rider he's passing is Eva Basso in the white jersey so the three leaders are split now by half a minute and the Armstrong group a little more than a one-minute behind [Music] and there is the situation with Oscar severe dangling at the back and suffering to try and hang on this is the man who won the Taurus pair finished second rather in the tour spent last year lost it on the final day currently in 13th place overall and just trying to hold on to a very select group of bike riders here they are now just 14 seconds behind Laurent shall appear in the next half a kilometer I expect they will see the Frenchman and rejoin him after he led this race for again almost 150 kilometers 12 the just men 12 and a half as we look back because severe keeps coming in and going back again for the second time in as many days he's going to look over his shoulder and see Lance Armstrong he can't believe his luck he's almost given us the same struggle his head as he did last time another brilliant day for Jennifer absolutely superb to go out on the attack for two days like he has done he be rewarded this time at the finish with the lead in the king of the mountains but he really desperately wanted that stage win in the distance Oscar severe and the front is Jose Luis a would-be air and a teammate of Armstrong Armstrong a lucky for his chaps I feel here methyl reps are lifted again the gaps open once more this mountain is relentless now and it's nine kilometres still in it to go Tyler Hamilton now just tapping Lauren's alibi on their shoulders to say well done good ride we nearly pulled it off and Christophe Moreau who we will have to wait to see what the referee's decision is tonight as to whether or not he will receive punishment for punching Carlos Sastre in the face look at the pedaling action there of ruby era on the front just sitting tucked in nice and calmly behind her I think they're actually picking up the pace just a little bit here in fact you can see this is a ruby eras kick now towards the ste top steeper part of the climb he's lifting the place I think they want to try and put time between themselves and one or two other riders that pot Andre Kibby left off the back immediately as well as Stefan poohbear well goober certainly couldn't lift it up one more notch doing a great ride there he is but under i Kimmel ever be upset he's going to have to dig deep this rider from Kazakhstan because the orders gone out from land suggest that lifts the revs and see what happens and he's reduced it by two riders and here goes they're asked now is he pace making or an attack and it might be pay streak what it is I think it's pacemaking yeah well it's put this man into serious difficulty as well because they're literally blowing all of the once' riders away Serrano now has popped off the back of the group Roberto Harris has come forward right now Yoshi Berber Loki is surviving an eagle Gonzales de Galliano is now gone we are going down to the same trio as yesterday Roberto Harris Lance Armstrong and Yoshi Berber Loki but today they may well try and work one over on Yoshi Berber lucky because I think this is going to be a serious show of defiance by the man on the front Roberto Harris he wants to drag his team leader away and his team leader and the yellow jersey would like to give him a victory just under 7 kilometres to go and we have the same three riders but armstrong has lifted the revs it's up to Pilate Pilate must go round her ass or lose ground he's got to come round him I don't know whether he can Armstrong has made his move now he had planned to attack here when he when he recognized the area in thought he might have changed his idea because he had the lead already yesterday when that that team was a little bit of a surprise but Lucky's got to come otherwise the Tour de France but him has ended right now the lobby's trying to survive he's trying to keep in contact with Armstrong but look out for Harris and in fact Armstrong doesn't beast doesn't look to me right now to be going full-bore he's waiting to see he's tempting the locky to try and close the gap down to him and look at this I have a feeling any moment now we will see an acceleration come from Roberto Harris because Harris is very comfortable on the wheel of the low key Armstrong right now is not opening up the big gap and Harris is very happy just to stay there well that's his job to sit on it yahshimabet lucky for the last two years third overall in Paris on the Tour de France currently lying in second position but now Hall Lance Armstrong he's doing is repeating what he did in May by himself and let's go out for a day's training he's just sitting here pedaling like he's taught himself the only good thing is it's a little bit warmer than it was in May it was in the - Celsius temperatures then when he got to the top today it's around about 30 degrees Celsius well this was the hero of the day look at that time yeah for Laurent jelly bear is over three minutes behind Lance Armstrong at the front of the bike race well large caliber won't be at all interested in what is happening at the front of the race right now now a little show of defiance Bible loci and I think that's all it was because I don't think he can pick his pace up to go back up to alongside Lance Armstrong Armstrong out of the saddle all the time at the moment keeping this perpetual cadence going that destroys the bike riders around the world and once he knows he's beating him he'll settled back into his own rhythm and in the next five kilometers just how much time can he gain well you know he doesn't even really need to do this is leading the bike race at the start of the day by a minute in 12 seconds what he's doing is riding away from the rest of the field stamping his authority on the Tour de France today put all this into perspective by the way Phil l'orange Oliver has lost six minutes on the climb so far and this is the group behind and look how poor Terra is suffering he's up alongside Serrano and eagle Gonzales de Galliano who led this race for such a long time these men now could only hope to survive there is grandmother's room says on the far side an Armstrong is slowly but surely a the gap between himself and receivable Aki and his own teammate Roberto Harris runs us looking back here to Solano is edible to galeano these riders are together with but cherub is there about it bike great bounty climbers rather and they can't get near this man who often tells us he's not that climate it's a different type of racing as far as he's concerned he just pedals quickly and rides them all off his wheel Rijo of the rock looks as though he's just come out the shower right now five times a winner take a bottle and received that little professional foul a little push off the off the offering hand they're probably extra sporty but nobody's going to complain about this is a vicious day in the Tour de France as Armstrong out through the exhaust fumes of our helicopter and the shimmering heat of a hot day on the planet of a die a bad day rather is now going to put his name in the record books the only other manners one here is Margo Pat Tony I think that was a correct slip of the tongue he made their film because platter the bad timing the platter of the battles and that's exactly what's happening right now this is a huge battle that Armstrong is delivering it to himself and that there is that the men who expect it out thrown him and look at that the gap is now becoming much more serious it's slowly but surely opening it's now hovering at 15 seconds Roberto Harris is just sitting there for the moment waiting to see if the lobby will fail and if the lucky does fail I wouldn't be surprised to see Roberto Harris launching the counter-attack it's still an awful long way to go to the summit for Lance Armstrong right now and he still has the frame of mind to sit up breathe easily as easily as he can and take the drinks on board affect her is five full minutes of taking second place in the Tour de France a study that was pretty much about it kilometres yes still five kilometers to go but there is a real chance people are talking of the US postal what see his race as we switch back to the fatigue of La Jolla back because in the mountains still to come this a very tough tour now a relatively Parma day tomorrow then we climb that the giant of Provence bonbon to we have two groups la planta in that the Alps before we go on to the final dive trial and then the finish in Paris still an awful lot of racing to go he does not believe that Armstrong is not now going to win this tour by less than 10 minutes faced there on the Oshima Bellotti he's really suffering answer is not opening up a huge gap at all in fact it's just prepped up a couple more seconds to 17 seconds and below fee is basically riding his individual time trial right now he is trying to limit his losses on the Texan who's gone off on the hope of another loan victory just like the victory he got himself yesterday he would love to have offered that victory to the man who number three there Roberto Harris but what an incredible pedaling action of this man who after his particular cancer film lost himself 20 pounds in body weight but he retained nearly all of the strength that he had her ass is gone her risk has attacked now this is what they were waiting for this is I think why Armstrong hasn't opened up the gap at all he was looking at the span in who was in front of him look at this he waited to see the lucky suffering and he went straight over the top of him this was the strongest man of the race yesterday and very quickly armsan will get that information from Johan Bruyneel I think it'll be one two tonight he will wait once he knows he is crack below key he will wait for her ass and he will give him the stage as a present from yesterday that would be the formal think of the team out to perfection now this little climber from Spain magnificent yesterday the outstanding man on the mountain is now flying towards his captain for what a professional he looked over his shoulder to make sure that he had a very good gap between himself and he achievable Aki because he would not want at all Armstrong's competitor absolute we love the man few moments time anthem will certainly get that information with Johan Bruyneel he will lift his pedaling action just a small amount and I think he has done that right now and he will very shortly be with our shop and what a sight that will be athlete monster give it a 20% chance of life because of a cat sir he's recovered and returned to win the door that bar three times we'll give you odds against him at winning it afore here we are in the first mounted step of this year's race the Pyrenees little of Roberto Harris land selected him hand-picked and brought into the team to help him in the mountains now he's gonna wait for him and I think we'll give him the stage win today he says harass simply fantastic and if he couldn't let it win yesterday he would have done but it was too dangerous because you'll see the below key so keeps the revs up just as quickly as he as we head towards the summit of the platter by I lost count now four kilometer burner yes or kilometres to go for that sock shop the clock will start now they're coming out of the very steep part of the Clyde right a few moments ago Roberto Harris peddling accent this man is a brilliant - may win the Tour de France he came alongside lots off from too low to try and improve his time solving it Valachi is also making a pretty smart recovery here to be is inside that gap as well 12 seconds to Roberto Harris there on the false flat part of this course right now this is the course the part of the course where you can get the big gear and and start ticking it over and you can see their hair out out look for lucky changing up the gears this is the plateau fit of the glide now and our son knows he's coming he loved only shoulder there in the gap 13 seconds and 25 as Lance Armstrong now just keeps his rhythm going dearly love when asked to come alongside him say thanks for everything two days severe the mountains and he's give him a brilliant lead now he'll be heading out to at least a minute behalf at the classification tonight unless mati recovers of this and asked looking over his shoulder to see if he catched him of course her ass will stop working he won't continue to take the leader and he's always checking of that the fighter the only fighter seemingly industries Tour de France who believes he can some form of combat with Armstrong the gaps are very close indeed right now Armstrong lead robber - Harris by 14 seconds in fact Harris is slipping back and it's been just 12 seconds people achievability [Applause] right this moment it's going to be art from riding on his own towards victory aren't from really which advantage which was at the start of today a minute in 12 seconds is a small Tigers on the line as well which were pushing out even but the other two will also get tired bonuses which work completely the escape off Scott himself about just doing all you can do to increase his lead there is just those two between the two Spanish riders the lucky looks to me as though he's coming back because her ass has decided he caught reaches captain I think he was told to sit up there because just at the moment when the US Postal Service team car went by has picked that was the moment he ceased to chase the front man Lance Armstrong he will now wait for your Sheba be lucky and I think allow your super beloved to set the tempo behind what was happening there was that Paris was caught in between the two men and he was acting as a character and here is the man that in fact was super Pilate was aiming at the cat and that was encouraging that the man who was in third place far down the slopes now the figure below Angela bad we now see three kilometres to go Alice has turned dark but lucky is coming back to us and us will now sit behind it maybe choose to speak to second place Armstrong has been given his head now leader of the team to build on his overall position and to increase his lead in the Tour de France tonight is Roberto Harris taking down the ticket collectors position the batter will do nowhere I just see everybody is on board well if this is we've just got a little bit steeper than this right now I think Roberto solutely suits him he can use his special power to get the bigger gear ticking over right now and he has now started to build the big time gap over your Sheba be lucky it is now 35 seconds to Harris and the lucky right now Harris has to play the team role he was hoping I think to get himself a victory here coming back and places Santiago Botero and practically two-zip good man Gonzalez de Galliano is also pulling himself slowly but surely back to his own teammate trying to as the gaps close together because the as for Sibley Flo about inside [Music] this will be his 14th statement pastor the memorial stone to his friend Fabio Casa tele means a lot to Lance as he now continues his way to the top of the plateau kilometres are a little bit easier now level out on this beautiful mountain covered in that's the pedaling action they're exactly the same as he had in the team tanto sometime ago and you look at that compared to the pedaling action of these two riders right now it was that pedaling action that most Lantau from the individual time trial right now it is being used to perfection on the last two kilometres of the climb up here too two kilometres less than two miles what whoo sighs for Lance Armstrong in amongst the motorbikes now they'll chase those away as he continues to a festival this summer as everybody just simply goes this is what they wanted to see they've waited probably eight 7:24 for those the kms height the fast legs are flying who is destroying the right from Spain as he just rides to Lourdes of it's a big in the toilet roster we'll give you any [Music] but under the banner there of forty of two kilometres ago it's 32 seconds to these two cases right now but the position of their pedaling accent is completely different to that of Lance Armstrong they are now does hoping to survive Mishima Bellavia frantic increase his advantage in the second place of the program this year and Roberto Harris this afternoon probably he will find himself well inside of the top ten but Armstrong cool is ticking away with action which he has cultivated over the years since it came back from testicular cancer the crowd [Applause] right Ryder they're even encouraging ramps plants on some of the front even though the majority of people here are fast they are recognizing what is an unbelievable athletic performance all shouting because they're saluting magnificent athletes here in the we have written to the maximum over some of the highest mountains this country has to offer as proved he is head and shoulders above everybody else but they'll shout even the last man ho it's a tremendous achievement by all of the riders what can you continue to say about this man superlatives simply don't describe just how he rides a bike he comes here in the winter he checks every inch of the road he knows exactly where is going to attack exactly what he's going to do he doesn't care who enters the Tour de France he just sticks to the game plan and the game plan he's got to worked out very many months in advance and that's why he comes to look at these courses and that's why he's plants everything down to the final little minute of his attacks Laurent jelly bear is almost three kilometers behind Lance Armstrong on this climb kilometres is going to take him around about nine minutes to cover off now can see the flam Rouge in front of him that little bridge over the road you can see there is the last kilometre of today's stage and Armstrong still shows no signs of weakness at all he's pedaling absolutely perfectly this special in cadence he's managed to cultivate over the last few years is very reminiscent of the cadence in the mountains of Miguel Indurain and the great Spaniard he won well he's nosing away to almost a minute on the chase now a minute added to the 112 let's see small-time fall of two and a half they're three minutes overall when we see the filing situation tonight from taking his shoulders way to the summit of the plateau and bill three inch it the way this will be his sixth win of the season and I won't say to be the sweetest but it'll just be another routine day for this magnificent athlete they reminds me what we said very much earlier on today Phil you and I calm Debbie to de it said in the French newspapers this morning business as usual that's exactly what it has been for Lance Armstrong this afternoon and that's also what it has been for his team have done a magnificent job setting up this victory Yoshi Berber lucky is the man wearing number 21 there he's just trying to keep himself as close to pot as possible to Lance Armstrong this afternoon and Armstrong's team made there wearing number three or Roberto Harris again doing an absolutely superb job to set up victory here in stages at the Tour de France though currently racing in the professional circuit is that many stages in the Tour de France 14-4 lands on songi ladies third yellow [Music] [Applause] having won the prologue in his third state in this year's Tour de France and on this sort of four gorgeous he stages Patti win the record by the way he's held by Freddie Martens as in post ready Martin and Eddie box eight wins you know if you look at the number of mountain top finishes that are still left to go Lance Armstrong could probably win most of those as well I think you may well just try it and ride a much more tactical race going into the next big mountains terrain which is going to be the log on to and then followed by the outs but this is going to go down as which one that was setup verbally by his team he's inside 200 meters to go right now that's Armstrong left no doubt in anybody's mind a number one bike rider the France for the past three years and he will be the world ranked number one by the end of this tour again as he now races to increase his overall lead to profitable days here in the pyrenees yesterday it was close six hours aboard that saddle and this time a little punch in the air yesterday it's a clear to art salute today because today he laid the foundation which will win him the Tour de France again at this year and did you see that Phil six hours in the saddle an average speed of only 33 kilometers an hour today that's 19 miles an hour that gives you an idea of just how difficult today's stage has been you see Birbal Aki now is just trying to lose as little time as possible but he's already lost himself 30 seconds on the clock on the finishing line that added up to the bonuses 50 so it's going to be a big plummet down tonight well I wonder if her ass will make it a 1 to 4 US Postal he did she'd to go over the top of him here wait till he sees the line of 45 seconds the gap but lucky won't have the legs now he's tried to limit his losses as a little on Roberta Ellis grits his teeth drives up to the line u.s. postal first and second her ass will climb up the overall classification tonight he might even get a separate time as he comes round to the line a minute to behind a minute three and probably a minute five for Josie before locky Patera comes in after and Igor Gonzalez to Galliano after that so the same three riders alone at the finish for the second day running although this time the locky had to yield not just to Armstrong but to head ass as well the man who started it all eventually finished eleven and a half notes down consoled by the acclaim of the crowd and his fellow riders and no doubt also by the fact that he's now leading the king of the mountains competition 24 minutes back was Erik's árbol like Robbie McEwen well out of the points for the stage finish and therefore still in the green jersey by a single point now here's what the stage did to the standings Armstrong confirms his status and extends his lead the Loki is the closest man to him but getting further away nearly two and a half minutes back now head ass is up to seventh after two great days riding in the mountains David Miller slips to 74 two days in the pyrenees two stage wins for the defending champion the best spanish climber was riding on his team beautiful scenery but a pretty demoralizing picture for Lance Armstrong's rivals good afternoon stage third team was a bit of a recovery day really to split up what might otherwise be a fatal one-two punch of the pyrenees a mom von to the scheduling was academic for Jackie to remind you because he was thrown off the race last night for using a team car to drag him up some of the climbs the cameras didn't see it but evidently the comer says did went to the car Connor been going very fast because he still came in 41 minutes behind the leaders yesterday anyway he's now on his way home and lucky not to be joining him is Christophe Moreau who the comma says decided was the aggressor in yesterday's fight with Carlos sash although to be honest it was about as much actual fighting in it as your average orderly Harrison bout anyway Moreau was given a two-minute penalty which since he was 20 minutes down to start with won't mean much to him when Carlos asked got 20 seconds which seemed to confirm his view that he was the injured party nadie le porque pero sólo se hace UN corridor que que siempre respeto po nadie quiere siempre de donde el quiere no sabe que esté que la carretera as para todos corridor a no now here's a look at the stage 13 route 171 km/h and otherwise flat until Bezier where there was a little kick up towards the finish line the chaser group now would Laurent Zellaby they've one minute behind right now they will just ride to the finish and hope to survive now this is the traffic circle I was talking about a few moments earlier but from now onwards Ville it's nearly all uphill to the finish it's not much but after a hundred miles in the saddle it's a long climb and it's who is going to judge the sprint to the best they've tried to read each other but there hasn't worked out now it is going to be a 1 - to the line and you've got a good short sprint to perfection it is a long way of this road yet Chi Barea is making it plainly obvious he is feeling like the wind today's looking at everybody now ride on one side of the road here forcing the attack only on the right shoulder the riders latasha by the way the when one race in his life a couple of years ago and he starting the sprint to let me cost him the race because you can't lead out for the line of win but look there now at the face of etchebarren in second place Bo Bart is there Rashad is dropping off the back a little bit Miller is in fourth place Miller's gonna have to say something as they come over the top toward the light outlet as it is leaning out edgy berries to perfection once branded leaning out the other brother thought friends and he realizes now and go to Villa wait why they take away the brush on yes he does because what gosh don't see these chats now as they come to the line now Roshan is going daily minified finish this one off he's won the stage of the toilet before like this now candy when there's one day absolutely brilliantly done is not the fastest printer in the world but you would have thought so today we haven't written in the Tour de France today the only British rider in the race David Millar takes the honors as David echeverria now knows to his cost Miller brilliantly outmaneuvered the Spaniard to take the stage win with Michael Bogart Lauren brochure and David latosha making up the numbers ten minutes behind them our example and Robbie McEwen were winding up for a sprint to decide the lead in the points competition but now a baton cookie is going to try and take the lead with Dan Aloha he's coming up wouldn't he wear his teammates I doesn't know what to do pretty daunting now and it is red the green of the Joe undercurrent is coming on the left here talked a little bit out of it he's going to finish ahead of Zombo it is touch-and-go but I do believe they will now be equal on points well they were but that activated the tiebreak procedure which starts with stage wins of which they've each got one a piece MacEwan though has been marginally better placed at the finish over the rest of the stages so he now leads the green jersey competition by no points as to who'll be wearing it by the end of tomorrow though no predictions not from the race director either jean-marie LeBlanc was busy congratulating David Miller who now has a road stage win to go with his prologue for three two years ago the first British rider to register one since Maxie and Ray in 1995 I was on a mission today I told the team I wanted to win today and I knew I had to go in the first climb after like eight kilometers so put myself in the front line of the stuff for once alright this is it I'm going yeah it's a relaxed confident all right then let's update the overall for you although there's not much to update really because all the big names finished in the bunch Lauren Galibier sneaks into the top ten courtesy of being in the break David Miller took back ten minutes at the 40 we lost saving his legs yesterday it was just one climb on stage 14 fortunately for the riders it was this one Marv want to know what you're looking for after you've already written 200 kilometres through the shadeless scorcher province and to make things worse they'd be able to see it long before they got to it because mum want to dominates the landscape in Provence on the same scale that it haunts the riders imaginations not a mountain that you'd want to tackle in anything less than your best physical condition as David Miller yesterday stage winner was perhaps about to find out after his brilliantly time sprint to the line in Bezier yesterday David undertook a rigorous program of rehydration starting with a beer to help him produce the post-race urine sample and working his way through a quantity of Chateau photo opportunity champagne and onto wine with dinner not quite out of the Lance Armstrong handbook of stage celebrations that and it didn't look as though we'd be seeing David up the front today in fact unless the team sent someone to his hotel room this morning to wake him up he looked like we might not see him at all anyway quite apart from yesterday's festivities this was a stage he was dreading and he wasn't the only one from Tommy Simpson's death on this climb 35 years ago to Eddy Merckx finishing the stage in an oxygen tent one-one-two is baked in history and none of it is reassuring for lance armstrong though the history is more recent and more personal in 2000 the stage de menthe want to was a microcosm of the whole tour Italy's Marco Pantani continually attacking and Salm strong matching his tempo then upping it as they approached the line together armstrong passed up the chance of an historic win at one of cycling's holy places and offered it to plant arnie as a mark of respect to a great climber far from accepting gracefully though entirely continued his attacks this time in the media and his relations between the two riders descended into war by press conference Armstrong realized he'd given away an opportunity that may never come again today of course it has if I get there and in good position and and I have an opportunity to win again well I well I'd take it absolutely well I mean what would I ever do what I did again know understandably this of all stages is the one Armstrong wants to win at the same time though this of all stages is impossible to guarantee it's not a climb or a mountain that you can be too cocky with I mean you have to be respected at that mountain because it's so difficult in my opinion it's the hardest climb in the tour maybe even the hardest climb in France so for me to say I won revenge against the mountain or I want revenge against what happened in 2000 would be a mistake because it's it's hard and you need to just basically survive it well that's what every stage Demont want to looks like because the final climb is too tough to include any others along the way so there's 200 kilometers of dread with what everyone's worst fears are realized an 11-man break formed remarkably early in the stage and when it hit the slopes of the von to two men went off the front of it Russia's Alexander Bott Sharaf and five-time king of the mountains winner riche of Iran grew up until this point could have been riding in disguise for all the impact he'd had on the race five minutes and three seconds that's Armstrong two Barranca Barack has gone well there Uncas borne to the attack he came up a couple of times alongside butcher off to see just whether or not he had it in his legs right now I'd be wrong looking for the challenge that brought him the title of best climber in the Tour de France on five occasions and right now he's opened up just a small advantage this is a scurry really to test and see whether bata offers got anything at all Lestat left in his legs these two riders are five minutes ahead of the yellow jersey group of Lance Armstrong and when we looked back at the arms from group a few moments ago Phil I wasn't sure whether or not Levi Leipheimer was there his teammates have done everything possible to keep him in contact but I think he too was having a hard time with the accelerations being set on the front by jose luis Riviera well resharper on this with his plat for the day to get an early move get some time and then race for the finish like a rabbit and he's got him onto itself onto the climb with a lead of just over seven and a half minutes with that gap at five minutes and ten seconds he's about ten and a half kilometers from the summit he's left himself a chance he has a chance he's a climber and once you've been a climber you always have that ability in your legs to stay clear off the front of the main field he now will try and find as much courage as possible he's looking over his shoulder to see if he has opened the gap between himself and Alexander Bachar often as we pull back there you can see that he has slowly but surely started to increase the distance between him and the Russian there is the Russian right now and now the Russian takes onboard a drink a little professional acceleration there for the Russian but that's not going to help him too much in the picture the long picture of this whole climb up to the summit of Mont Ventoux he's already won that minute behind resharper rock it is amazing how fast you lose time with the elastic snaps Paul one minute back to that man when you go you go on the slopes of a mountain like this sir barok now is looking for all of his courage to try and get himself to the summit of the climb but there is the group of the yellow jersey of Lance Armstrong and looking down on the group we can see Armstrong the lucky is in there Acevedo is there a room SAS is on the left hand side the white jersey there is even Basso Santiago Botero is there as well Francisco man Sabo is also there for Ibanez TOCOM so all of the American challenges for Lance Armstrong have disappeared today again on the slopes of the mountains and again another acceleration Acevedo trying to put pressure on arms oh but look at the ease that Armstrong came across as they go past door whose body well this is the second time he stretched the team he lost ego that's ours - Galliano in the first attack at least below Kia's hot line very very well indeed here he's just going to follow Lance Armstrong but he's got a go for him sooner or later if he wants to and no longer on the back after that acceleration is the Colombian so Botero has gone yes he was shot going backwards but also behind them is Matt Sabo and I think even further back is Santiago Botero so that acceleration really has caused a serious gap in this group now the graph again reducing in numbers all of the time arm from looks very comfortable ROM SAS is riding a superb Tour de France he starts the day in fourth position and I think by the end of this afternoon he will find himself in a podium position in third spot because Igor Gonzales de gal Deanna was left behind quite a few kilometres ago this man still hanging on resharper on four minutes 12 seconds the last time check we have at nine kilometres from the finish it is still just on 30 seconds a killer later he has to concede for his position and his pedaling action is very good right now it still looks fluid he's still getting out of the saddle when the steep part of the gradient kicks into his thighs keeping the tempo as high as possible he has to be very concentrated right now because he's a great chance of surviving the only man and I actually didn't give him that much of a chance a few kilometers ago because I had a feeling after kilometres at the front of the bike racing he would have dead legs when he came to this clime but right now he is riding alone in front of a group which is becoming the very elite group of the Tour de France the group with Lance Armstrong Basso or um SAS and Yoshi bhuvarlok II team management coming up alongside they were given as much encouragement as possible but this man will get an awful lot of encouragement from the people at the side of the road because he has produced some incredible exploits on the roads of the tour over the last many years Iran has been quite an animator of any of the mountain stages whether they were stages in the Pyrenees or in the outs and right now he would very much - lot love to win here because this is probably the closest mountain he could really get to home ground he's a Provence al himself he comes from in-between Marseille and too long and right now his pedaling film looks pretty good and he might well just caused a big surprise of the day as I don't think anybody thought Viren would win here there's a nice view of the top of Mont Blanc - you can see it for over 150 kilometres on a clear day around France and right at the highest point is where we are sat and where the riders are coming towards us where we shall be wrong right now not very far away from chalet for now and from this point onward he goes out and there's a here this has been lot well art and arms from has to respond to this one well you've got to take your hat off to the Spaniard he said he felt he was good enough to attack Armstrong in the mountains now we've got the spanish-american tandem and Armstrong says you do it to me and I'll do it to you and his to be immediately now and you never ruffle the feathers in there because I don't think Pilate has the legs now well don't play with me that's what he said that move came from your Sheba below key it was a good move a violence attack and immediately Armstrong responded he's coming up this is the man who was in the breakaway a few moments ago Pradera he can only look and see what's happening he will see his team leader behind him he will try and recover to pace him for a few moments but that's not going to happen right now Armstrong would have been content to sit there and ride to the summit in the company of those other guys but once the attack came he had to launch the counter-attack well I salute below key for the way he attacks but Armstrong was waiting for it all to happen and he just went straight right art shop now is free to fly and can't fly quick enough to bring back resharper rock as they progress towards the summit I think there are still a couple of riders in front alexander butcher off and Mark Osler Pelini I haven't noticed that but back now Armstrong is racing and it's all on a win here and with every pedal Rev he is going to get seconds more over Yoshi but by Loki the banners are coming a tree shava rocker quick and fast now another killer meter ticked off four to go the time gap at the last kilometer banner is three minutes 50 seconds it is going to be touch and go now we're looking at the gloves here of Lance Armstrong I don't know whether he's just trying to hold his bike on the ground there because he's going so quickly up this mountain there are free riders as far as we could work out still in front of him this is unbelievable to watch this pedaling action of the man who was walking away with the Tour de France at the moment it's a completely different style to that of Rishabh be wrong the wrong style right now reminds me of a former teammate of my own Robert Albom he finished third overall in the Tour de France but he was a climber like this long to lean like rossabi rock always out of the saddle battling with his machine looking for any amount of strength just to keep the gears ticking by compare that with arms from who sits firmly on his machine and ticks over the pedals at a hundred revolutions for everyone well perranoski is still in the frame somewhere down the line they're talking him being at three minutes 15 I'm just wondering if they've confused with butter off but we'll find out I'm sure as Lance Armstrong continues his ascension of the mountain here applause of the crowd this champion for three years the Tour de France and soon to be proud for a fourth year because there's no doubt he is a man own its atmosphere as he races up the climb he continues now Rishabha rock is hanging on armstrong is still dreaming it's 50 behind at the five kilometer banner these men are separated by around about one kilometer on the road Armstrong is looking superb he may well have left it just a little bit too late to close down on rossabi rock but look what waits ahead those are the final four kilometers of the more Vaughan to this afternoon of the rank coming but again to one of the steeper gradients here getting down into the saddle just trying to keep the body going just trying to find the strength to keep his pedals going round because this man has been away for a hundred and ninety five kilometers on today's stage and he's hoping to survive for just four more three minutes and 43 seconds to Lance Armstrong and it's in these portions here that aren't from will eat away 20 30 40 seconds for every one kilometer of climbing left but the myojin on the ascension here as he concentrates on keeping that cadence up to the required revs per minute arm song just looking at a point in front on the road and just concentrating on his speed he knows that no one now behind him he stayed with him we drop back a little bit here is rums ass Basso Acevedo and the other rider there and with him is below key as just latching on the back too we have Matt Simone out but he's done well to hang on as they continue through this crowd they are dropping away from the action Armstrong is riding away with the Tour de France here there are a huge amount of American spectators here but I think the incredible thing Phil about cycling supporters is they're cheering every man on the slopes of this climb here it doesn't matter whether rossabi rock is a Frenchman the Germans the French and the Belgians and the Dutch they're all chasing than she's been supporting these men with a phenomenal physical effort that they're putting in perhaps with that shock towards the summit you can get some idea and it is only some idea as just how steep bonbon too is and Armstrong does even though his chain is at the bottom of the gear frame here it just seems too concrete with great ease the French flag and a Spanish flag and the watching an American here desperately tried to scramble up to the leader he's not going to do it I don't think today this man is suffering now like he's never suffered in a Tour de France before and he knows the wind will mean so much to him and indeed so much to France well those eleven riders had the chance of winning the stage in the bottom of the climb they all got blown away by the rock all picked up by the men behind it looks as though Pradera is now being dropped as he and below key is also shaky well this is amazing Pilate tried desperately he's paying the price here now drugs asked could well they look fireplace in Paris that we thought because he's still up and look at that right by Pradera he'd been dropped and his size team leader in difficulty and he dug even deeper he pulled himself forward he's going to try and pace him back to rum sauce room SAS is looking at climbing up to second place in the overall standings this afternoon he's a long way down on your shimmer be lucky but with performances like that over the next couple of days it's going to be very dramatic in the Alpine passes Armstrong is still whining I don't think he's got enough time out on the road to pull back through sadhvi ronk was rich Oberon has still got to pull himself up there be wrong right now the top half of his body is singing out in pain to him saying please stop but he won't because he can see as Armstrong goes under the two kilometer banner rossabi rump is under the 1000 metre sign well he may have judged it absolutely to perfection here because the old legs have gone now on automatic pilot at one kilometer to go but he's probably got the gap that will win in the stage and you've got to admire the man for that it was a breakaway of more than 200 kilometres from Iran to get the victory on Vaughn - he is surviving Armstrong is coming but not quick enough now but the good news for our thought is everybody there classification is hating Bhagavan - and losing time the rock is coming to the summit of Mont Blanc - in the twilight of his cycling career well it's been a great climber throughout his career you don't win the king of the mountains on six separate occasions without being that's little victories of their slightly reminiscent of the one for Chevelle many years ago but this one I think will probably be the sweetest because he probably didn't even expect it a little gold chain around his neck carries a small bicycle the big bicycle brought it to the summit today it's really really steep that final corner it's where Lance said to Pat sorry you could win the stage two years ago well this time this man is earned oh right 200 kilometres in the lead and victory for Rishabha rock in the grand style of the Tour de France well that was courage spill the last five kilometres that this man Road were on sheer guts and courage because he can't have had very much left in his body at all there the leader of his team at the start a difficult ride through the Pyrenees to tough Pyrenean stages but he got himself the win Armstrong though is doing a great job himself it's a solitude here of so lone ride of Armstrong of the slopes of the mall for two at the moment and what he is doing is increasing time over everybody else in the overall classification winning second place and Russian rider today alexander butcher off of ag2r another french - he grits his teeth on what he's won the steepest sectors of the course he's allowed to freewheel those last couple of meters and about one minute 57 but now as we look backwards Armstrong was coming about it just not quite long enough but this champion of the Tour de France strip the legs of all of his main adversaries again and still he peddles it's remarkable low gear he's gonna save four minutes now on the rest as he comes in at two minutes and 19 seconds now this is a rose ass another outstanding performance by this rich Iranian and he needs the seconds and he knows it he will fight to the lion seconds couldn't make the difference in Paris he's got to fight and squeeze them out now because advantage in the time trial might be his he comes in at 336 Basso at 338 for sixth place this will be man symbol now coming up to the line to the other young Spanish rider who's had a great tour de france so far it has heard everybody now below key racing for 8th to place as your Sheba knows now every second is putting him further behind Armstrong in the race he comes up to line he will well you know if the Loki had attacked earlier Armstrong would have counted earlier and this man might have come over the brow at the finish in the process of being overtaken by a clockwork Texan he didn't know and there's confirmation of what a cheap comic might call of on to 3v ronk taking the stage by 158 from the only other survivor of the breakaway Alexander Bachar off with Armstrong 220 back in third and below key another 145 behind him seven and a half minutes behind the winner and slipping down the placings was the former yellow jersey eagle Gonzales de Galliano on Santiago Botero who started with a fifth and an even worse font to experience coming in over 15 minutes back behind them David Miller came in 67th 18 minutes down while of the sprinters Eric Zabul survived the day better than Robbie McEwen although there were no points for either off afterwards David Miller spoke to Matt Randall David Miller they look hellish yeah it was a horrible day really hard day with your performance affected by yesterday's victory and celebrations and on celebrations just yesterday being off the front 470 KS just a really hard climb just tired at the finish the French popular hero who tried and failed to escape for a mountain stage win two days running congratulated the one who finally managed it some of his past victories may have been tainted by a suspension for drug use but today recovering seems to have shown he can still win and win clean she clue Oh booty no medicine Baskerville achhamma ketone a par male GT GT Chaumont a show voltage if it's a public kettle I see demon onset wash away Rica tamale she to Donny [Music] different scenery same suffering in prospect today the tour arrived in the Alps and here's a reminder of how things stood coming into it Lance Armstrong in control of the race with a lead of over four minutes on his closest challenger or Sabre the lucky Lance Armstrong's challengers faced the same problem they had in the pyrenees how to cope with the murderous pace he's been setting in the mountains with that distinctive high cadence riding style of course if you look up cadence in the dictionary there's no mention of pedaling frequency or in fact cycling at all but the main definition tells you all you need to know anyway the beat or measure of something rhythmic and on the evidence of the last couple of years it looks as though lands has got non-stop techno coming through his earpiece all the rest of the teletón is tuned to Radio 2 it is going to be a question of setting the tempo which is his that cadence is unbelievable he ticks over those pedals Armstrong climbs on a small gear and turns the pedals up to 100 times a minute that's maybe 20 times per minute more than serious climbers like balakian Matero and incidentally more than Lance Armstrong mark 1 when he first raced the tour he rode like most non fly weights do on power it wasn't until his post cancer reinvention of himself as a cyclist that he adopted the baby steps approach in conjunction with his coach Chris Carmichael Lance will do is keep his pedal cadence higher than most of his opponents out there he'll probably average about 92 maybe a hundred rpms at times that kind of helps reduce muscle stress saves his legs and keep himself essentially crusher for the climb some speed less effort is the magic formula sort by every cyclist not surprisingly it started to catch on so he does pedal at high frequency but that's mainly when we seen on the TV in those attacking winning moves the rest of the time he's not quite so high it's only when he's really on the attack and that's the difference I think to attack you've got to be able to rev that out on the mountains which it's very very difficult to do the rest of the time you've Bobby trying to to sit in and just just maintain that momentum which is what he's doing generally behind his is us train he's very very comfortable I'm definitely what he's doing now is is what I'd imagine a lot of the guys are trying to are to follow me try the coffee in selecting a moment as fashion is play cadence as Lance is winning if Lance wasn't winning and it was all went in with big gear everyone be training big gear whoever wins the Tour de France creates the fashion coming from the track and a Time Trial background I was very much a drop heel sort of driving the cyclist but in the mountains we've seen Lance and he's you know he's on his toes and pedaling away and it's it works it's definitely the way to go it just takes a lot of time a lot of work to become efficient yourself especially if you you haven't been that way the rest of your career so this time next year the entire pallet on could be metronome in up mountains like windup toys although following fashion doesn't necessarily mean being able to catch it Armstrong's the centre mum Ponte on Sunday was timed at 58 minutes fastest the famous mountains ever been climbed in the Tour just the kind of news to put the rest of the peloton in the mood for a big Alpine day and there it is the longest of the entire race at two hundred and twenty six point five kilometers 6 minor climbs along the way before the big one up two leaders out Christophe Moreau wouldn't be climbing it though crédit Agricole leader who'd spent most of the tour either on the floor or trying to put other riders there crashed again gashed his lip and abandoned that's been a miserable race for him with the misery clearly evident as he went the day's reckless driver award meanwhile went to Benoit Yocum of US postal clearly failing to stay in lane on one of the climbs and cussing at bonjour sylvain chavanel but the front santiago Botero was the highest base rider in a seven-man break which at one stage had built up a lead of over ten minutes as we join it there on the final climb with a lead of about nine minutes on less than eleven kilometers to go the pace of the chasing bunch meanwhile these Schelling riders off the back as he's inside at three and a half kilometres to go to the finish now for Santiago Botero former white jersey winner former king to the mountain to run the king of the mountains back in 2001 to stage before one in 2000 of bree also and of course here at lori on in the time trial that she can claim now to be the first colombia to do that now mario it has come up behind acts on works here at the back of the race so they're riding the second and third while the leader is at three kilometres on the summit I can't see anybody getting to him now the odds say Armstrong peloton at seven minutes and seven seconds they're closing with not quick enough I don't think the breakaway will succeed today mercs really has been the king of the mountains on this day winning most of them and probably having done enough to claim fifth or sixth place overall in the king of the mountain not the race by the way this is another move it could be months a boat [Applause] which response coming from on say they're nailing everything back right now trying to keep control of the front end of the main field Armstrong quite happy today the only teammate I think he's got left in this group with him in fact is Roberto Harris has been kept in reserve the man on the front right now there is Michael Bogut he'll be doing the work for Levi Leipheimer y primer is in that group I've seen him once or twice fairly close to the front so he's conserving his ninth place in the overall classification meanwhile back in the struggling department now it looks like even gotti twice a winner of the giro d'italia and also there is Oscar severe hanging on to the tail of this group not quite the rider he was last year Paul hasn't had a great Tour de France so far in fact is in a group of riders I think just making contact with the Armstrong group there I thought was a quick glimpse of Roberto Harris there's number one Armstrong on the far side there Massimiliano Nellie but this is the man who get the victory this afternoon and again but a tough way to win a mountain stage going out on the attack a hundred miles from the finish and quick glimpse there like Homer moving up to the front of his group there with michael Bogert and the race completely opened up here by Santiago Butera he will get the win this afternoon and that will make him only the second person in this bike race to have multiple wins to his credit because Armstrong is the only other person to have won more than one stage so far Armstrong has a total of three and with this win today this man will get himself his second that's Armstrong about to end his fifth day as race leader of the Tour de France his rivals clearly have not had the strength to lift the tempo and try to leave him they've used their team to set the pace for the havoc crack Lance Armstrong this rider wanted the stage win 18 minutes slower than Armstrong to this point of the Tour de France no man he's pulling back possibly four or five minutes of those lost 18 and he might well look they do well in the time trial still to come and of course the two remaining mounted stages but today he went out to make amends for the disaster of Mon bond too and he certainly done that the Santiago bacteria potato comes up towards the line as a Colombian for his second stage win of the year in the Tour de France that is he won the time trial at lore'l now he's going to win at the road race stage here to Lagos out the only the man to win here Marco Pantani he's delighted absolutely delighted now this was a long way to go for the win but he read it right as the breakaway did the other day on Mon bond to this time he's done it thank you he says and there's a lot of Colombian flags waving like all good professionals make sure there's nobody creeping up and there isn't well that was a great win absolutely superb in a long way out this man is really a gutsy bike rider losing 15 minutes can blow your morale completely and that's what he lost on the slopes of the mauve on to but today he came back and looked for the breakaway he knows they'll be breakaways every day right now because Armstrong's not gonna chase men who were 20 minutes behind him in the overall classification and he got himself the win but Aero delighted his bike probably just relieved and behind him the chief survivors of the original break led home by Mario Aires who won the Belgian sub category ahead of axle mercs behind them though the yellow jersey group with nothing major at stake was refusing to come quietly here comes an attack from below key the the reaction from Armstrong it was a little bit slow he said that's number 21 that's the man 2nd to me so he's gone after and look at that that's a cheeky move Paul oh it's a very good move by balakian fatties on the desk on straight past an acceleration Harris is there in look over isola and see Armstrong but Armstrong won't panic we are now looking at just seconds is what Villani can gain if Armstrong doesn't come to his wheel but I think the Texan has got this one under complete control slowly but surely is pulling himself back up to the slipstream and rum SAS look how attentive he is Phil he's come across there as well these are the top three riders in the overall standings of the Tour de France this year it was a brave move but it's done nothing at all to change the standings a huge move on a huge gear by your shippable Aki and Armstrong a little bit slow to react and a bit shocked maybe but he's got out of that hole very easily indeed concentrating look at his face as he comes up here and just gets onto the back wheel off the lucky and goes from that's not because Rome's ass is looking for second place there's a little reminder too that he might well me look in the second place overall in these next two days in the mountains roms ass keeping the viewing figures high in Lithuania and he led home the yellow jersey group ahead of the low key and the jersey himself all of them of course on the same time the big story of the day though was Santiago botero´s second stage win of this tour and afterwards render as you in for prime minister mucho mejor y cuarto Quintana general Lonardo say tapas a diferentes de la montaña contra la premies into un fou India Malo so you ma no no say no machina como todos que estamos aquí Y when y Fortuna men taken taken leader tacos la fuga por el tiempo que perder el mo men to see yo de las kappa women 10:40 Ramon and la Sione you know the only man of one mountain stages and longtime trials the past five years also on the tour matera who showed he can do both although of course those lost 15 minutes on mom bond to him well out of contention for the overall from while the calm a team mechanic set about straightening botero´s bike the rest of the race was arriving on the installment program our example came home in a group just under 20 minutes behind the winner the David Miller just over another couple of minutes back was Robbie McEwen so no substantial change on the leaderboard except that Santiago Botero moves up to seventh deploring back almost half the 15 minutes he lost on stage 14 at the top Armstrong is treating bellotti more like an annoyance than anything else watching him all day and running after him like an irritated pair and tell me when necessary that was a strong attack at the end actually I didn't I didn't expect that and I didn't know he was attacking until they told me on the radio but it's important that you that you cover all of those attacks because if they feel like you know one day say you let him go into guest 10 seconds then all of a sudden he has this this huge morale boost and the next day he attacks all day long so it's important you jump on it immediately and not necessarily sure that was boss but certainly met them know that you're not gonna let him go well he's got three kids of his own land so he knows the importance of instilling discipline and he remains what that great cycling fan ray winstone might call the death day to in the Alps was far and away the most difficult mountain stage of the tour not the degree of difficulty seemed to be making much difference to US Postal Lance Armstrong's team were turning the race into an American remake of the three musketeers all for one and all for one now for all their tireless effort they don't get a lot of face time Lance's supporting cast so we went to US Postal directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel and asked him to give them a bit of individual credit lorises is doing well he had a an off day the first mountain stage he doesn't have he doesn't have the experience of big stage races he's uh the key rider in the mountain with Y is a workhorse though he's from Luxembourg we started in Luxembourg so he was very motivated to start the tour in the class stages he's the guy who has to work through the dirty job like plain vacuum of is every book everybody says a key interview he's back after after he retired last year the true professional an example for the young guys and solid worker where you can pound on on the flat in the flat stages in the team time trial in the middle mountain stages always there George is the motor of the team always they're able to go fast from the flats able to pull in the mountains really somebody consistent I would put them in the same class like like somebody who can do his job in the flat stages and in the mountains made big progression compared to last year worth his weight in gold marvellous the tallest guy in the team probably also the strongest guy in the team and also the quietest guy in a team never speaks never complains always rides solid as a rock Jose Luis Rivera we call him chechu everybody says Chatsworth is how everybody knows chechi probably the best person in the world very good guy always happy always friendly in the mountains he does the the pace for the team when he puts the pace it's very fast a lot too fast for most of the bunch and he's the guy who makes the first direction Roberto is I think together with the lands and the Loki the best climber of to the front he's somebody that man's can rely on in the mountains somebody like that it's really as a feeling so Lance Lance is the team leader obviously and his only role is to win the tour there's the stage three of the highest category climbs in cycling the gala be a the Madeleine the final climb up to Loch Lanyon well the day was too much for two big names Oscar severe lying 11th at the start abandoned with stomach cramps and Lauren do fo whose 45th climbed off to just 29 kilometers into the stage rammer banks Michael Bogard attacked in a small group which eventually shrank to just himself as we join the race he's made it to the final climb with five and a half kilometers to go has been pursued by CSE's carlos sastre behind him a group containing Lance Armstrong is chasing - and the pace is dropping men like igor gonzales de Galliano off the back the whole body is putting power into those legs right now just to try and get up the mountain every time he picks his head up he'll only see the road kick again Lisa's got the crowd shouting it on they of all the people appreciated just how hard this mountain is many of them have ridden up here on my bike as well so they know those strengths of this man and the pursuit continues and it is closing now rather rapidly two minutes 51 seconds is the gap now sastra still has a chance here he all of a sudden has accelerated he's now more than a minute ahead of the Armstrong group and is his man sable in a spot of bother at the back now it looks as though it might well be so he too has cracked well he's hanging on he hasn't gone yet this is a horrendous climb in the fact that it just seems to go on forever and ever it never gives up the gradient the average is 7% all the way to the summit there and that's where we're headed to right now on today's stage of the Tour de France is uphill all the way from here to the finishing line prepare to Harris now so chechu has had to call best and he's sailing out on the left job and look at the difference in the pace now he's done a magnificent job this man he really is the super dumbest thing that everyone would like to have on their team one of the top Spanish climbers and now at the service of Lance Armstrong this is why roberto Harris has been kept in reserve he waited until ruby era had done all of the work that he could Harris himself Phil is in eighth place in the overall classification and now he's picking the pace making up and I don't think there's too many bike riders will be able to attack this pace because Roberto Harris is a brilliant by trident now there's no easy way to the top there's no energy to be saved there's no pain to be spurred he's just got to give it everything good hope now because this rider is on a high and is still closing in holding at 220 for the moment so he hasn't closed in since the five kilometer banner bogarted will respond I think to the many Dutch people on this climb who would not have been expecting to be cheering a Dutchman home today the difficult thing about this climb is it's never it never gives up the gradient continue all the way to the finish line it's not like one or two the crimes that we go out where at least is a few moments of flat for Michael Berger to recover there is no flat at all from here all the way to the finish we're now looking at Carlos Sastre making his way under the 4 kilometer to go banner he's slowly but surely pulling himself closer but hopefully for Michael Bogart he deserves to win and if the gods of cycling are breathing on his neck today hopefully it's a tailwind he's pulled back 10 seconds in a kilometer as we go back to the bunch and this is it moved now well it's up to balakian Rob's ass they're the men behind Armstrong he's had enough he's going for it and he still has a chance at catching the lead and there's no reaction no reaction at all rhyme unless run sass was on the front of the group and he wants to really bang home today that the superiority he's had in the Tour de France so far this is the man who is leading the bike race Michael Berger and he doesn't really know what's going on in the race behind him as Armstrong comes out and he now is in lone pursuit of Carlos Sastre now Armstrong has left himself enough time here to wipe out the two leaders I think this is unbelievable his absolute concentration he waits for the moments that he wants to stamp his authority all over this bike race once again he sat in the slipstream of his team which really I think Phil now has to be regarded as the best team in the world he's made the contact with Carlos Sastre he'll come up alongside and merges to glance across to look at him two kilometers to go there it is Armstrong is joined the SAS trip will get a time check shortly on Michael Bogaerts it's gonna be tough for the man at the front of the race is really gonna have to dig deep his body will be telling him please stop let me have a day off let me just finish the bike race right now but he can't because he's now inside the one kilometer to go sign and that I think is going to breathe a huge sigh of relief for this man because now he will win the Statesville he must have been worried a while a moment ago when he heard that the yellow jersey had flown out of the group the sweat is pouring off the face of Lance Armstrong the concentration is in his eyes he's fixed on the sight of the road in front of him all he wants to do is build time between himself and the rest of the pack was how much more can sastra take sitting on the back of this locomotive because it is 150 in fact that's good enough that's good enough for a well-deserved win by a great bike rider in Bogart Armstrong I think would not have wanted to have wiped him out after the journey over the outs today fame more importantly to Lance he is adding time with every turn of the pedals now he pedals pretty quickly sastra I'm not too sure we'll hang on if Lance kicks again of the kilometer with these are the riders on second and third on the row we've forgotten already about balakian drums ass cameras are not going back to them anymore because we're watching Armstrong made good his overall lead in the Tour de France certain now to go over five minutes here they are malaki showing strain on his face now so two rums a su has no more in there still we've got Yvan Basso confirming his lead in the white jersey as a newcomer and young rider to the Tour de France my permit is still there as well and might even climb up one place overall and I wasn't sure then Bob I wasn't sure I saw Harris Harris was there just for a quick glimpse of him sitting on the back he won't do anything at all to contribute but cook this he checks over his shoulder he wants to know where is the yellow jersey he knows he's coming fast but he knows that he's a long way behind aren't from now Abbas well Jill amitabh Ana it's very close but in theory Michael burger should not be much more than 500 meters to go to the finish line and he's smiling now that was a smile I was sure that he not gonna pick him up it's a gentle right-hand bend as he comes up to the line here at la plana he must feel as though he's just climbed from base level to the moon because this is such a mountain and he's been the hero of the day is he breaking away from that group guess he's gonna love this one now that's a real smile there's been tough you know it's really been a long hard 18 kilometres acclimatize and he'll enjoy this victory salute because he's been dreaming about him for almost three hours and probably more than that for probably six years because that's when he last what his only stage of the Tour de France in the pouring rain of aches lay ban in 1996 at that time he was being tipped as a winner of the Tour de France he finished tenth last year he has finished fifth in the past the crowd react to a hero of the mountains today he can't believe he held above that is an extraordinary weld Bogart hopefully somebody better catch if they better catch him pretty quickly in there man they're just getting inside because it actually does not level out at all Armstrong is 500 meters from the finish line right now but what a great win by Bogart they're actually lowering of his bike in front of us remarkable victory five hours of 48 minutes for Michael Bogart he is in absolute tears here in East ISM at the left kiss the nearest man II can catch Ola he doesn't know what to do in front of us as we go back to Armstrong still gaining on all of his rivals in the Tour de France going into the final showdown in the mountains tomorrow and they will won't know what to do he's just eased up here that's what allows has a training ride it's a mind it's ridiculous it really is incredible the man has planned this Tour de France to absolute perfection Phil he's ridden these climbs more than anybody else and that I think is the secret of his success he goes out in the early when the temperatures are absolute freezing in snowstorms rainstorms and he wants to know just exactly how his body's going to react there's a couple of seconds difference in time bars between second or third and for that reason I think that's why Armstrong has perked s Astra in front of him because he might well out sprint him to the line this big man towers over the little build of Carlist astra he doesn't come round him he says thanks at 1:26 our song comes through eyes just in a pedal through and look for the showers by the look of it here comes below key in fourth place the locky accelerating away from SAS the limpet is still locked on his back wheel but he's not got the better of the locky yet still wants those seconds to claim second of Malaki but lucky I think I'll be hard to do that but he rubbed ass is a better time Travis and juicy the Milwaukee there split at the moment by enough time possibly but the locking will feel safer he'd be gained a bit more time by the line and I would say that's a fourth and furbelow key and the time gap just over two minutes two minutes that means that our song will lead tonight by six and a quarter minutes so there's the stage result Bogard a worthy winner Armstrong - magnanimous to take second place off sash and below key losing more time to the leader and apparently concerned now mainly with marking the man behind him in the standings I'm on this ROM sass the man who started the day in fourth place eagle goes Alistair Galliano finished the best part of five minutes down on the day which dropped him a place in the overall standings David Miller meanwhile was in the later driving also bus along with Robbie McEwen 34 and a half minutes back and neither of them was driving when you can always count on Michael burger to give good slow-mo produced one of the great Tori actions in 1996 when he won his first stage in Exley ban and here he did everything but get off and wave his bike at the finish after riding a hundred and fifty kilometers on his own though he deserved it to reach over wrong can Santiago Botero a great breakaway stage win for the third day running and that ride has buggered up into 12th at least for a day while David Miller is now down to 69th perhaps saving his legs for another stage win at the top though Lance Armstrong's calculated stranglehold on the race continues to tighten his lead over your Sabre blocky is now over five minutes yeah very happy it was it's a boy's dream are you called that in English but it's for me it's a dream and it's come true and I'm happy for Michael I think he wrote a hell of a stage he was out there all day and when somebody does that and spends a lot of the day alone when it was hilly it was windy it was tough he deserves it I hope but I think to overrule this is really hard for me this is my best way never I feel really good this tour actually especially in the climbs more so than than in the time trials but I know these stages really well I mean Leblon yeah I know very very well and so I was comfortable on the climb the team was in control and kept the rhythm consistent so I didn't I didn't have to kill myself early on and I did feel I felt very good and there's a shot of him feeling very good she's still talking about the next two stages as being very tricky but on the evidence and his chief rivals unwillingness or perhaps inability to attack him the race now seems to be the second place Lance Armstrong is the most popular Tour winner has ever been in America here in France the public have never really taken to him and even on a race like this years where he's riding like a true champion some people still refuse to acknowledge his achievements [Music] [Applause] got deafening but unmistakeably there the sound of the best rider on the tour being boom old horn - ahead of him was a Frenchman who's been suspended for drug use have warmly welcomed back into the affections of his cause in public Armstrong who's yet to test positive for anything but fanatical dedication to his craft was still viewed with suspicion in some quarters mainly it seems for being implausibly good sometimes frustrating because you see riders they accept whether they really cherish and love and cuddle and and scream for and it's the guys that in the group you say I don't ever want to be like that guy if it's any consolation to Armstrong he's an excellent company a rolecall of riders disliked for their sheer domination of the sport include the likes of eddy merckx who was kidney punched out of contention by a french fan in the 1975 race even five-time champion venerina the last Frenchman to win the Tour de musica de France a Zambia Turkey Santiago is in pursuit again rock until Catherine Deneuve DiNozzo the element problem a massive problem eligibility order to across the Pagani residual value or you know she began in secret especially purpose if Aleppo Guinea technology canoe supremacy boondis HIPAA normally fish sippin homage general Khan quarter he knows advice to Armstrong is to learn to live with it and I'm strong anyway as a rider adept at turning adversity into motivation still he lives in hope that if he persevere as the public might come around no offense but I want to be the guy that just keeps his mouth shut works hard true duty and true his family true their sport it gives a full effort and wins the race that's the guy that I want to be I don't want to put a flower on my head or take a picture or do a song and dance I just want to be a sportsman and when the biggest bike race in the world and that's what you kind of hope that the people on the road side say looky there in French that would say Shep oh look at the guy train harder than anybody else wanted it more than anybody else they got it well barring accident or injury has got it and getting over the last of the Alps would confirm it today stage had three big uns and there's on every mountain stage this year the weather was baking for the riders beautiful for the helicopter shots stage 17 two clues and the three leaders Mario Aerts Dario three go and Giuseppe Guarini are racing off the last big climb of this year's Tour the switchbacks of the colder Columbia on the Descent now frigo was dropped at the top but he came back on the flat and that's him in second place but a game Paul Mario words is showing them even if he is a Belgian he knows how to go up and down mountains as we're now looking at one of the groups caught in the middle and they effector regrouped somewhat on the descent here and there's somebody just going around the corner there and it may well be that that is Santiago Botero because he is giving it full gas on this descent and Friday isn't he still off the back with his teammate this is Gutierrez who's trying to stay in contact with his own teammate right now I think the group adjuster Han who were in between at just in front of those cars there but look at the descent here by Santiago Botero he listened to the yellow jersey group now because Guarini is waiting here is going to take a flier from the bat he's lined off just far enough to gather that speed and free girl I would have thought would not want to be in first place right now and yet he seems to be content to hold it and earth is rather like a truck finish because here it goes he gave plenty of warning to everybody and he's being chased by Mario Hertz and I think that might send the advantage to earth because Guarini has gone far too far out and a kilometer the girl you have to do it all now this is the turn that Paul mentioned as we start to sweep around the corner here and a massive massive crowd includes up with his no straight finish here in the last kilometer today of the Tour de France purchased them well to shut off and here goes the counter free go tempting and to open up the sprint nobody wants to lead it out of course because that's the advantage to the other two and he go again there because frigo is looking at ads and this might be it Guri need a man that last one on the top about doers when Eric the photographer knocked him down inside of the finish he's gone a game it's a desperate end and earns his time trying his way back up and I beat him he's caught him he's hooked up this is a desperate finish and men who are knock your sprinters well he's where he must go a game up Joannie with of the in effect classic in Belgium and Taccone sports Dario free go is going to get the win the give the race on the Descent they should have got rid of him because he's worth the day the fielder right behind the Paterno still pushing in the front gilberto looks put more time to try and break into the top four as well overall well in the Alps of the Tarot has been the only man with the legs or the cojones to attack Armstrong he came in 11th 258 behind the stage winner Dario frigo with poor old Mario at second for the second time in three days four and a half minutes back was the group containing Lance Armstrong your Sabre burlock here I'm on this run SAS and Eagle Gonzalez to Galliano so as expected not even a nibble at Armstrong's lead in a group nearly 20 minutes back were Eric's árbol and David Miller Robbie McEwen another three minutes behind them McEwen and Zarb all thinking ahead to the resumption of their green jersey battle tomorrow assured of victory in the king of the mountains competition now is Laura shallow there on account of their being pretty well none left below camicazi of the mountains might be a more apt title considering where he actually finished on most of the mountain stages santiago Botero lost his second place in that competition today to mario ads but in the overall standings he's ridden himself back into fourth one place higher than he was before he lost all that time on Mont Ventoux Lance Armstrong keeps his lead exactly as it was this morning and he'll no doubt have his eye on the final time trial himself as a way of signing off on his fourth tour win [Music] stage 18 was back on the flat well flattish and that meant the resumption of the tightest race in the tour sort of having an armhole each Robbie McEwen and Eric Zabul couldn't be any closer in the green jersey competition tied on 229 points apiece with Stuart O'Grady too far adrift in third to really enter the equation and McEwen actually wearing the jersey only courtesy of a better record in the daily hotspot Sprint's now coming up it was the individual time trial where neither rider would score any points so the race was going to be decided on the road to Borg on Bres and the final day to Paris which is exactly the point it came down to last year with their example only overhauling Stewart O'Grady from the final hotspot sprint of the tour this year O'Grady has been eclipsed by his fellow Aussie Robby McEwen from so to a large extent as árbol the German of course is the incumbent in Italy winning this competition I mean a frist son to grow up on the podium nevermind marks on the kitchen wall sorrel juniors height chart has been done by the creme of the world sports photographers in six annual installments in a straight sprint though the German is clearly slower than the Aussie this year and on yesterday stage Savile acknowledged it the first hot spot sprint came after only 10 kilometers a rare opportunity on a mountain stage for the two main men still to be up front and battling for points however Zabul sent his teammate Rolf out day ahead on a solo break a couple of kilometers in advance in order to mop up the points and make sure there was no sprint tactic that impressed McEwan a little bit scared I guess I didn't want to sprint I didn't really care either way the point set a goal but I still like the jersey so technically I'm in front the points and if you want some ladies teammates go and tie the points in it's not gonna help him any sir that's my mommy Bazaar ball hasn't won six straight green jerseys without being smart as well as fast he knows he's stronger over rolling terrain the McEwan and he fancies his chances today on what is actually a very hilly course there are also rumors that he's been offered the help of Lance Armstrong towards a record seventh title unsubstantiated of course or strictly against the race rules if true what is known though is that Armstrong and McEwen aren't the best of mates and if Robbie's gonna become the first Australian to win the green jersey falling out with the patron of the peloton ISM perhaps the best way to go about it today's route was an official tour terminology a rolling stage in plain English full of nasty little climbs and not easy at all for the sprinters nonetheless the word to intermediate sprint neither particularly flat with the usual six four and two points on offer for the first three riders and points for the first twenty placings at the finish well there are no points for either McEwan or Zabul at the first sprint of the day for the second day running Zabul have been happy to send one of his helpers away his top leader man actually Jan Matteo Fantini who's got 10-man break that took all the points there are two races in progress on the road to Borg RS one for the stage win between the three leaders for shaft more Jam to Tretiak another one behind them to decide who's going to take the green jersey inside the kite one kilometer want kilometer to go now don't forget the man in the green jersey won the sprint yesterday for fifth place he was on a mountain stage and he's not known as a mountain climber the man on the front from france he wants to try and get the win he's in an ideal position right now pushing the huge Norwegian into first place we're all we're going to get the tactics coming now Phil the road and they've been away at the front of this bike race since kilometer number two and right now the most important kilometer for them is this fast one push off looks very confident but he knows the Frenchman has got a very big kick they are waiting he's waiting for the sound of the tires accelerating behind him and then he will open up the sprint 500 meters to go more guys still in second looking over his shoulder to see if there's going to be the return of the group there won't be the winner will come from these three men well licking his lips there Christoph man John he's forced the younger rider to lead him out which is brilliant but watch out for yak appeal he can't sprint very very well as they come off this bed the right in white against the barrier is that sensible riding by or job to force the attacker on his left power peel pull his foot off the pedal it's all over as now this man goes for the line mahjongg cup here comes the kickoff christophe manager now but he's going to be given a rock for his money he's just gonna know their head on the line and i think and he thinks so too that push off has well at the stage that was an absolutely fabulous sprint well there's the spin Alice if we concede here well it's quite sir it's quite clear from that angle isn't it he's won it by a quarter of a wheel absolutely no problem at all still in control the peloton at 900 metres is US Postal danilot Hondo priming himself up here to lead an example for the hopefully watch out on the far right for Robbie mikuni looks so cool as he sits on the back wheel of Zombo he's waiting Bazaar ball to make the move now we go back three weeks when zarbor used to complain that Robbie McEwan always polish me I think they had to crash there to look like four something's maybe we didn't as we come into the home straight now now Hondo has got the lead now the big lead out coming from Ralph all done this could be a lead out bizarre ball look upon McEwen is two riders back here Yan Serrano is putting in for the first time he's the third wheel now for these are both fifties McEwen as we come into the straight now the big effort the big leader it still looks as though the cure on the left of the road it's all clear sandy for the queue and here because they've given in the pervy lead out on the line one that point advantage took a point that was the idea of the day to be honest I was er I was really worried about this stage and they'd lose points ends up I've taken another one so that gives me confidence it's a hard sprint they're very fast at the end but uh I was able to come past Erik so it's been a top day it's all gonna come down to the Sean's alizée not an ideal situation I presume but how you feeling about it well Erik sir got it now a one-point deficit to make up so it's up to him to and he's turned into the work for the intermediate sprints and it's up to me to try and pass him so that's the ideal situation at the moment so tomorrow's Time Trial you'll just be going through the motions saving all your energy for the chance Alisa exactly by the time we got to America's Arbor was already resting his vocal chords heading straight into the telecom bus to contemplate perhaps the loss of his point title after six years of domination so there's the stage result push off the head of mall Jean in what was a two-man sprint in the end after Pele pulled his foot out of the pedal and the Norwegian who had a miserable first week hanging on at the back of the race redeems his tour and that of his team on the last road stage foot one [Music] feeling good the after 10k I went right break away and I did a perfect technically race so I was there with three guys and I'm also strong using this brain so that was good so no recourse to the rule book today McEwen leading the green jersey competition by a whole point with three Sprint's to come now on Sunday and he knows that whatever tactic Zabul throws at him or a limited use against sheer speed now I'm strong isn't the kind of champion who's happy to take a lead mark his rivals and make it to Paris with the minimum of fuss he believes that the strongest man in the race has a responsibility to demonstrate it especially when he's wearing the yellow jersey however having lost the first longtime trial of this tour he was well aware who the big threat would be in the second well this is the time everybody's waiting to see now but Teru have been heading up the checks they're off from coming through them slightly slower so this surely is now the time to beat and he hits the line at one hour two minutes 18 seconds now Armstrong really will have to do something special he is not going to win the time trial Santiago but Turner has got a great scalp here as Armstrong comes up we'll be ten seconds down when she died Oh strong with taro everybody well everybody will say one person may one the first one he's won a lot of time trials this year he's looks it looks good in the race so he's my pick so fast forward to Sunday morning just tell us how you're gonna be feeling probably hungover from Saturday night that's his first joke in four years and there's a look at how things stood coming into today's stage Armstrong with his five minute lead over your Sabre below key and the lucky looking over his shoulder a try Montes run SAS who was hoping to time trial his way up into second place the course was 50 kilometers of sun-baked roads with the first time check 10.5 kilometers in at the top of a testing climb so as we pick it up with just the top four men left in the Tour de France have to start boot arrow roms ass below key and Armstrong well we're looking at this face now as Santiago Botero a man that lost 15 minutes of the mountain Devon to somehow bounce back and now is challenging for the in Paris now can he make Columbia completely happy and get the time that will take him into third place why mundo strums us aiming now to become the first lift Union to get a place in Paris a good start for him very quickly up to the tempo required to keep the speed an average of 46 kilometers an hour to take down victory here if he can on the finish line it's still for Draghi first to Miller and then honcho Armstrong is underway a very important day for Lance yes he's going to win the Tour de France but I think right now he wants to go out with an even bigger flagpole and that's the win this as well Lance Armstrong blazing a lone fellow across the vineyards here near Mecca the undulations at the sit tough one it's a hard time toilet might favor the men who are coming out strongest of this race and certainly Armstrong is at one of those look at this crowd here now as he changes direction even the police they're applauding the my ozone or the Tour de France and holding the left in the road taking the shortest way possible runs us still trying now for a time that will reshape the leaderboard and I wonder Paul I'm expecting best time here this is an unbelievable crowd here at the summit of this mountain and I don't think anybody has jeered Lance Armstrong it's a complete accolade from France for the man in the yellow jersey recognize the Myo jaune of the Tour de France as they cheer and shout him on just look at this Mexican wave right before him absolutely incredible atmosphere for Lance the helicopter head waiting for him as the check approaches and he's gone through that check and he's gone through in second place 17 seconds behind that runs us there it is Armstrong just off the pace with a slower start Paul because the course is hard here might mean a stronger finish today look at this it is much closer to a half a minute in front of Miller's time this man is burning up the road as he now comes up to the line in 44 54 now there's for Armstrong to aim at he is approximately six minutes behind at this point so 44:54 I'm under strums are surviving to the 33rd kilometer and still giving it his best effort here I'm from now in the streets of Shann he's to now looking to find out whether he can rival Rye Mundus rum sauce at the 33 kilometres time check and look at this time right now the man from Texas has brought up the pace making feel he is accelerating he's totally liberated right now he still got a little way to go before he gets to that time check but it is going to be a remarkable time for Lance Armstrong rye mundus ROM SAS was the fastest man at this point but right now the yellow jersey is beginning to dominate well he's reversed it on this sector of the course which is harder than the opening sector and I thought that runs us looked as though he was beginning to suffer he has now reversed a 17-second that deficit here Lance Armstrong into an advantage of well than what the bat sees was now it's switched 44:47 anyway for Armstrong the next man to come to the line will be this man they a huge success in Columbia Santiago batteries one three stages at the Tour de France over his lifetime he's won the king of the mountains he's one of the rare men to beat Lance Armstrong in an individual time trial at the Tour de France and right now what he's looking at is trying to make sure that he keeps himself up informed Lakes because he's not going to win the time trial today as he did between Lannister and Lori all he should nicely finished in fourth place continuous progress as a newcomer comparative newcomer into the Tour de France former king of the mountains in the Tour de France Santiago Ventura for locky has gone through in sixth place a minute twenty two off at forty four point five kilometers covered as we watch Paterno finish and little man is coming in here with a time very close to his represent his overall position sixth place at the moment can't be worse than eight now nine one 601 permit arrow but Rob's ass now is in the finishing straight he's digging very deep he's done an absolutely superb time tile what will be important for him though Phil is not his time on the line right now because he's not going to win the time trial the time between himself and Yossi Berber locky is what is important and rhyme underslung SAS will rue the day lucky to spring clear of him on those hilltop finishes and gain a handful of seconds because his cost him second place in the Tour de France he comes home currently to a cheer and against the best time wait for the arrival of Armstrong won at 443 forums s and that when all the calculations are complete I think he'll have lost second place in the Tour de France by about 45 seconds this is below key now heading down towards the finishing line every second that will count he should be okay but he's aiming for a time not worse than one hours seven minutes and one second if it is then he'll stand in this familiar third place on the podium in Paris Armstrong has been the leader and the second and third check he had to reverse a 17-second deficit on drums ass drums asses finished with the best time of one 443 and banoffee now racing into the last kilometer cannot do worse than one 701 he is safe now it'll be a one six something so that will give him the victory of second place by about that 45 seconds I mentioned because as he comes up to the line there's the time of drums asked Milwaukee not the best time Charlie's in the world but boy did he suffer today to conserve his second place in the toilet rock hits the line in what 601 he saved it by a minute well that was a brilliant ride by him he really must have dug deep to stay there and keep himself in second position that was a position he wanted to keep but right now we're waiting for just one man out on the road the time to beat is one at zero for 43 of raimundo Strom says Armstrong is not far away right now and I tell you one thing this crowd is going to give him a huge ovation he's in the corner now film this is an unbelievable ride if phlox says 1:03 31 and listen to the crowd bring the American champion home well I'll tell you this man another two kilometres would have caught burlock even as Armstrong now comes in Lucky's 1 601 and Armstrong just over two minutes quicker than him as he races the line to the victory 1 350 there's no argument who the champion is of the Tour de France for the fourth year in succession so Lance Armstrong with a time of 1 hour 3 minutes and 50 seconds as one is 8 time trial in a Tour de France and this is confirmed him at once again as the man who is the champion of the tour anyway there are no reruns for equipment failure so rums ass was an excellent second to Armstrong superlative first you know santhi is up and down I mean he's an awesome writer but sometimes he's he's like Superman in other days he's a regular man so maybe maybe it was too hot maybe he started to too fast I don't know but you're right I did say I did say Botero but I forgot to talk and think about room sis and I should have because he was motivated to try to catch Pahokee and move from third to second he showed it showed that he was motivated Rome's ass might have done even better with a decent allen key in the latter stages of the race half his energy was directed at keeping his loose handlebars straight and who knows how much time you might have made up on blocky otherwise [Music] so 3133 kilometers down 144 to go finishing with ten laps of the sheikah cycle track in the world ample opportunity then for the Americans in Paris and there were plenty of them to get a good look at their man Lance Armstrong as he finished off his fourth consecutive Tour de France victory on the eve of it he sat down with Paul showing its 4,000 kilometers so there's never a three-week race like that where you don't come under pressure and stress about certain things and have crises in the race the crash or not the crash but the incident there and never OSH was was a stressful moment losing time in the team time trial who's in the first individual time trial those were stressful points four years ago when you came to the talk you didn't know you were gonna win it in 1999 and when he took the lead people to know this guy's got a weak team they can't defend this year the team's been unbelievable mm-hmm well we've over the years we've tried and tried and tried to improve the team everything about it between riders staff equipment training mental preparation everything and finally I think we're to the point where the team is is at least this year is close to perfect the team made life incredibly easy and I'm very proud of this team well if you ask me what was one of the most significant and intense moments I would also say the climb to Mom og with Roberto because he was flying that day and I was that I mean that that was the most trouble I was in the entire Tour de France on my own teammates squeal I don't tell people to slow down very often but I was begging him to slow down what's gonna make you stop one day because I get the impression one day you'll just get up and say forget it I don't know it's I mean what can I say I mean the way I raised and trained and feel about the bike now is exactly the way it was four years ago so it's not diminishing it's not changing it's good I know kids are getting older which makes it harder I've yet to have a day where Luke says don't go on the bike or don't go to the racer where are you going why that day might be difficult but I think he thinks it's kind of cool he thinks it's if he as long as he can watch the race on TV which he can do most of the time in Europe then we're okay well there are the hard facts of Armstrong seniors fourth consecutive Tour de France win seven minutes ahead of your sober Loki of Spain Lithuania is Roman this room SAS the surprise of the race in third Santiago Botero at Columbia fourth and the lucky Spanish teammate Igor Gonzales de Galliano fifth David Miller is completing his second fall tour in 68 with a superb stage win to his credit now just because Lance Armstrong was rolling gaily into Paris fielding the occasional endorsement offer on his radio earpiece didn't mean the Beno racing on the last day in fact the final stage was shaping up as one of the most exciting four years Robbie McEwen and Eric Zabul each had one stage win in the tour they both finished second and they've been splitting the daily hot spots brings all the way from Luxembourg to Paris in fact until stage 18 they've been tied on points before McEwen beets are bought in Bork on breast to come into the final stage leading by a single point no Australian had ever won the green jersey Wells novel remember had won six in a row as things stood though the advantage was with McEwan you know always at the finish on the chancellor so I think just about everyone in the race wants to sprint there even if they can't sprint they want to get a result and everybody is excited in the last Danish honestly say but I think it could be decided almost on the the two intermediate sprints before the finish so you're feeling strong feeling good I feel good yeah yesterday I I had a good day it was the stage that worried me the most but I'm still very very wary of Erik Sabol and I know he still hasn't given up and they could have some trick up his sleeve are you nervous the final day of course I'm a little bit nervous it's normal but uh good nerves well they started the day separated by a point and there were 47 up for grabs on the stage six for the first man through each of the two hot spot sprints and 35 for the stage winner against 34 second place so it looked like going all the way down to the line before the serious business of the day began though it was the usual last day of term behavior always bringing in their monopoly sets Lance Armstrong leading the post is in a rolling toast that sort of thing Lauren Oliver seemed to be on an uncharacteristically self-congratulatory bike although it actually turned out to be a present from the manufacturers anyway hilarity was suspended for the first print of the day which came after 54 kilometers or example had the telecom lead-out train but McEwen had the superior speed he took six for first place zarbor four for second and that meant McEwan's lead was up to three points in the green jersey competition as we pick up the race it's heading towards the shots Alizee and the home riders are jockeying for position at the front interesting that's christophany luto on the front there Andrea pair on up into second place I'm not sure if that is czar well it looks actually as if it might be stiff and face amount I can't see the green jersey anywhere at all so that means at the end of the day that this is going to go down to the very final Springs do you know what I think they might well have said to each other let's just go and sprint for the win and lead because there was no reaction from either McEwen or zarbor so we go to the finish of this race now today with 35 points for the winner 30 points for the second and there are three points between the two Harris got the six points the first time he's ever won it Landis in second and so that was a little bit of a benefit of it that's there's the belt well there you go this means just one lap to go for these riders Phil seven kilometers left of the Tour de France of this year and it's the last Tour de France for long jelly bear and what a remarkable career this man has had jelly bear had nine wins when he raced with the Toshiba team 143 wins when he raced for once' 12 wins when he rode for CSC tiscali and what a great way to go out of the Tour de France moving forward right now but lamprey on the front and this is a brilliant move for these guys this again is Rui Mundus Rome SAS looking for the gap I cannot believe it this man will not lay down arms he wants second place if he can well there's no way he'll get it now this will now go down the list of cheeky moves because he's not going to get a minute in the last six K of riding but where is the green jersey he sat right in the back pocket of air example as he turned under the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe rums ass is becoming the first Lithuanian cyclist to go on the podium in any Tour de France in 89 editions of the event but it's all too late there's no way this man can get a minute over the speed of the race I don't think it's going to happen but what a show of aggression as he comes off the front that sprinters must get it back together right now as we go through there's another move coming off the front it looks like the Commodus Ryan is Cedric Besser going clear across the Place de la Concorde for the last time we're now looking at around about three and a half kilometres for the finish the whole of the fields that will be together I would say Phil when we come back Lance Armstrong has won the Tour de France on the rules you cannot lose in the last kilometer whatever happen so let's watch the front now as daniel honda brings on to the top 12 shots and lycée now the two men fighting the green ones for the boy in pink up to the [Music] the stage he's taking off a cup put off the line he's won least aid before but now just as Lance Armstrong yesterday wanted to win the title India Rabia McEwen has taken the green jersey in the finest possible manner and I think he's crying good look at the face of Robin McCune fill absolutely unbelievable this proves that he is the top sprinter of this year's tour and he worthy is very very worthy of the green jersey at the end of the day is fantastic I mean to top it off with this tight win it's been a really nervous rice and having slow ball the last days obviously top it off without him this days I'm still more relieved than happy but happier than Eric Zabul not so much dethroned after six years as abdicating in the home straight not even featuring in the final sprint which McEwen took ahead of a future Aussie contender for the competition baden cook and damien nasan Sowell came in seventh so McEwen winning the points competition the way you supposed to by winning a stage he's second on the shots Alizee incidentally and that meant double duty on the podium the first ever Australian winner of the green jersey receiving it coincidentally from the Australian ambassador to France norwich ala bear had the king of the mountains competition wrapped up a couple of days ago and he also hit into retirement with the title of the tour's most aggressive rider best young rider was Italy Steven Basso who took the white jersey off David Miller mid tour and never looked like losing it best team were on say but only officially the real best team was the one that carried Lance Armstrong his fourth consecutive Tour victory and there are the facts and figures of it Armstrong completing the 3277 kilometers in 82 hours five minutes and 12 seconds 717 ahead of spain's you save a blocky second this year after two third places with Rui Mundus Rum SAS of Lithuania the surprise occupant of the podium in third you know he likes to name his tours Lance or at least America likes him to name them and after back the confirmation and last year's enjoyable tour this was undoubtedly the tour of the team they all have their little characteristics and emotions and memories and look they're all special you wouldn't pick one over the other but you know the newest one is always the most the most special at that time and right now we're just all so happy and it's a great team no idea what 2003 is going to be cooled it should be well worth watching [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Classic Cycling

Views: 83,967

Rating: 4.8150287 out of 5

Keywords: classic cycling, bicycle racing, Tour de France, cycling, Lance Armstrong, cycling grand tour

Id: MOzTU_a85bg

Length: 234min 17sec (14057 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 24 2020