TOUR DE FRANCE : Armstrong Earns an Emotional Stage Victory

Lance Armstrong of Austin, Tex., drew strength from tragedy Friday to win the 18th stage of the Tour de France, marking his victory with an emotionally charged gesture for his dead teammate Fabio Casartelli.

Armstrong pointed to the sky and blew kisses upward after he crossed the line for his second stage victory in a Tour, paying homage to Casartelli, who was killed in a high-speed crash Tuesday.

“I did it for one person,” said Armstrong, 24. “Toward the end I was hurting very bad, but I kept thinking of him. I did it for him.

“I wasn’t thinking about the finish or the heat or winning a bike race today. I was thinking about Fabio Casartelli.”

On another hot day with temperatures close to 95 degrees, Armstrong won the 103-mile leg from Montpon-Menesterol to Limoges with a surprise attack with 18 miles left.

He won by 33 seconds over Andrea Ferrigato of Italy in 3 hours 47 minutes 53 seconds, about eight minutes ahead of the main pack, including defending champion Miguel Indurain, on the verge of winning a record fifth consecutive overall Tour. Indurain maintained his overall lead of 2 minutes 46 seconds over Alex Zulle of Switzerland. Bjarne Riis of Denmark is third, 5:59 behind.

Armstrong, who won the Tour DuPont this year, was part of a 12-rider breakaway, then suddenly took off. The others hesitated and he built up almost a minute lead with 6.2 miles left.

“I didn’t like my chances in a sprint,” Armstrong said. “I had a feeling nobody would react. There were too many of them.”

He was second in last Saturday’s 13th stage, losing in a sprint to Russian Sergei Outschakov.

Armstrong, who won a Tour de France stage in 1993, said:

“It was very sweet, but it doesn’t take away what happened three days ago. It doesn’t replace him, but today was very special.

The Tour continues with the 19th stage, a 29-mile individual time trial at Lac de Vassiviere today. It will be the last chance to jockey for position with the best battle expected for third place. The race ends Sunday.