Ullrich: “Hats off to Lance. He’s a Superman.”
Charles Johnson
Sat Jul 23, 2005 at 4:23 pm PDT • Views: 123
Lance Armstrong has simply owned the Tour de France this year, and in today’s time trial he dominated the field again, winning the stage and almost certainly his seventh Tour as well: Armstrong edges Ullrich in crucial TT.
Lance Armstrong roared to victory in Saturday’s 55.5km time trial in the last real race of his remarkable 14-year career. And he did it with trademark panache, something that some journalists suggested he was lacking this year as he methodically picked apart the competition en route to an unprecedented seventh Tour crown.
“Someone asked if you don’t win a stage, they say you don’t have panache,” Armstrong said after beating Jan Ullrich by 23 seconds in the stage 20 time trial. “I came with the intention of doing one thing; that was to win the overall.”
Barring disaster, Armstrong will do just that after Sunday’s run into Paris and the traditional eight laps around the Champs-Élysées on the final stage. His lead of 4:40 over Ivan Basso would be the second smallest margin of victory in Armstrong’s seven consecutive Tour wins.
Frank says: