Word: armstrong
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Then the Tour de France began, and there came the clearest sign of his decline: on July 15, in the ninth stage, Armstrong, who in winning the last three Tours had never lost an extended time trial, finished second. Said Team once's Igor González de Galdeano, who was wearing the leader's yellow jersey at the time, "The Tour has changed...
Thirteen days later Armstrong took his accustomed place on the winner's podium on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. He had become the first American to win the Tour four times and the fourth rider to win four in a row. By dominating the mountain stages, he proved that the Tour hasn't changed, that he is still the master of this race. "After the first two mountain stages people realized Lance was as good as ever," said Team Rabobank's Levi Leipheimer, an American who finished eighth in his first Tour...
Despite the Tour's unusual layout this year, which stacked the five mountain stages at the end, it was perhaps Armstrong's easiest Tour win, if easy can be applied to a grueling three-week event that took riders over 3,270 km of rolling valleys and vertiginous mountain peaks. With one-time winner and three-time runner-up Jan Ullrich of Germany sidelined with a knee injury and legendary Italian climber Marco Pantani under drug suspension, Armstrong had only one real challenger - Spanish climber Joseba Beloki of once, who finished 7:17 behind...
...Every year the media come up with something to describe my race," said Armstrong, 30, a native of Plano, Texas. "The first year it was 'the comeback.' Then it was the 'the confirmation.' I don't know what it was last year. This year, for me, it's 'the year of the team.' This team is much stronger than it has ever been. It has made it easier for me." Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team surrounded him in the peloton and provided protection so perfect it came to be known as the Blue Guard and the Lancemobile...
With someone else bearing the burden of the golden fleece as the Tour sped through northern France, Armstrong settled in near the front of the peloton, where accidents are less likely to occur. (A near crash on July 13 cost him 27 seconds.) As expected, the Postal Service team didn't begin its express delivery until the first mountain stage, in the Pyrenees on July 18, when Armstrong was 26 seconds behind González de Galdeano. One by one the Posties burned themselves out and fell away like booster stages on a rocket launch as they led Armstrong...