Viva Lance
 
What an amazing victory again for Lance Armstrong in the 2004 Tour De France! Today Lance sealed his name in the record books as the most prolific riders in the history of cycling with a record sixth victory in a most convincing way, with a lead of 6+ minutes over Andreas Kloden. He also created another personal record - 5 stage wins on the way to victory. He won 3 of the mountain stages in the Pyrenees and the Alps, along with the two time trials that included one excruciating one (the first time in the Tour that they had a mountain time trial) in the Alps. Clearly US Postal was the best team this time, closely followed by T-Mobile, CSC & the Bakery boys. The team time trial showed just why USPS is the best. All 8 of them maintained a rock steady pace, taking turns to bear the winds & keep the pace. During the Pyrenees & Alps mountain stages, it was USPS & CSC again that set such a hard pace up the hills, that separated the other contenders (Iban Mayo, Roberto Heras, and Ullrich also although he did better in the second & third mountain stages). Floyd Landis, Jose Azevedo & Hinacapie have proved their loyalty yet again to Lance, being there forever with their captain when he needed them the most. They themselves did extremely well too, with Azevedo and Hinacapie placed 5th and 9th in the overall classifications.
 
I thought this tour also showed up some more heroes - Thomas Voeckler, an unknown a year ago, kept the yellow jersey for 8 days, he was absolutely a sensation. So was Ivan Basso, who promises to be a great mountain climber, he was the only serious challenger to Lance in all the mountain stages. Richard Virenque won the polka dot jersey (King of Mountains) for a record 7th time. Let us see what the next year brings, with the USPS team moving over to a Discovery channel contract, and the T-Mobile surely growing to a formidable team with Ullrich, Kloeden & Vinokourov.
 
Recently I finished reading Armstrong's first autobio "It is not about the Bike: My journey back to life". Here is an excerpt from his book about the 1995 Tour de France (before he was diagnosed for cancer),when one of the their teammates Fabio Casartelli (an Olympic goldmedalist), fell off one of the steep inclines and broke his neck in a horrible accident. The next stage of the race was a dedication to Fabio where they all rode in silence, and let the American team ahead, like a funeral march. Lance wanted to win thenext stage in honor of Fabio, and he beat the legendary Miguel Endurain for the first time in the Tour by a huge 1 min lead. Here iswhat he says after this:
 
I had learned what it meant to ride the Tour de France. It is not about the bike. It is a metaphor for life, not only the longest race in the world, but also the most exalting and heartbreaking and potentially tragic. It poses every conceivable element to the rider, and more: cold, heat, mountains, plains, ruts, flat tires, high winds, unspeakably bad luck, unthinkable beauty, yawning senselessness, and above all a great, deep self questioning. During our lives we're facedwith so many different elements as well, we experience so many setbacks and fight such a hand-to-hand battle with failure, head down in the rain, just trying to stay upright and to have a little hope. The Tour is not just a bike race, not at all. It is a test. It testsyou physically and mentally, it also tests you morally. I understoodthat now. There were no shortcuts, I realised. I wouldnt be able to win the Tour de France until I had enough iron in my legs, and lungs,and brain and heart. Until I was a man. Fabio had been a man. I was still trying to get there.
 
I guess he might agree that he got there today.