Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

With only two stages to go in the Tour this year, Lance Armstrong was still without a win. Lance immediately corrected that situation and won today’s time trial.

This is yet another dominating performance that leaves his competitors glad that they do not have to comepete against him any longer.

The Time Trial is much like those seen in the last six Tours where Lance dominates. He won by over 30 seconds over a very motivated Jan Ullrich and a fading Ivan Basso. The story of the TT today however is Mikael Rasmussen. Ras looked like his nickname “The Chicken” as he crashed twice and had about 4 bike changes and assorted problems on his was to losing 3rd place and falling to 7th. He lucky did not fall even further as his TT was a nightmare come true. Ras was nervous and the first crash made him more prickly. Add to that a harder to handle TT bike and you get today’s disaster. Luckily for Ras, he has such a large lead in the Mountain points that he still keeps that jersey.

Ivan Basso started greeat clocking the fastest time at the first 17km time check. Soon after, Basso was seen tip toeing down the technical and tight turns through the small villages around St. Etienne, while Ullrich and Armstrong were simply flying through. Basso eventually lost about 2 minutes overall, but it may have been due to unfamiliarity with the course and starting to quick.

Ulllrich was on fire today, but he ran into an unstoppable Armstrong who wanted to win the last TT of his career. Ullrich showed that he still has the power and talent that make him a worth team leader.

Now all that is left is to ride into Paris and pop some champagne. The sprinters will have their battle, but it looks like Robbie McEwen will mostly likely take the win. Stuart O’Grady and Thor Hshovd may have something to prove yet.