A Strong Climb Lifts Armstrong

L’ALPE D’HUEZ, France--During much of Lance Armstrong’s sojourn in the Alps on Tuesday, his furrowed face looked like a topographical map of anxiety. Jaw clenched, he appeared to be struggling in the very stage where he was supposed to start gaining ground in the Tour de France.

Team directors watching miniature televisions in cars trailing the cyclists on the course took notice and relayed the news to their riders by two-way radio. Armstrong’s main rival, Jan Ullrich of Germany, held his steady pace in a small pack of riders behind the leader as Armstrong hung back. French television broadcasters depicted Armstrong as struggling and lacking help from his depleted team.

What viewers and participants alike may have forgotten is that a tragic mask is an integral part of theater.

Armstrong wore an entirely different expression when he crossed the finish line at the summit of L’Alpe d’Huez, one of the most venerated climbs in cycling, 1 minute 59 seconds ahead of Ullrich. The 29-year-old Texan fired his afterburners with eight miles to go at the foot of the final climb to win what he called “a mystical stage” after more than six hours in the saddle.

He admitted his grimaces were a gambit designed to lull his fellow poker players into thinking he had a poor hand.

“I know when a motorcycle comes up with a TV camera,” said Armstrong, who jumped from 23rd to fourth in the overall standings. “Now in cycling, everyone’s watching. Sometimes you have to play that game a little bit.”

It was a familiar scene for an Armstrong production. On the way to winning the Tour the last two years, he took control of the race with the same kind of explosive acceleration at the same point--stage 10. Seconds after Ullrich watched Armstrong go by, the Deutsche Telekom rider ripped out his radio earpiece and flung it away in frustration.

French rider Laurent Roux, who had led the entire 129.58-mile stage over three difficult climbs, was grimacing in earnest by that time. Armstrong stood up on his silver bike, obliterated a six-minute deficit and picked off Roux with about three miles remaining.

In 1999 and 2000, however, Armstrong also led the Tour after the halfway point of the three-week endurance test. Thanks to the bizarre Sunday breakaway in which a number of riders not considered to be overall contenders finished more than a half-hour in front of the favorites, he is still a full 20 minutes behind Francois Simon of France, who pulled on the leader’s yellow jersey after Tuesday’s stage.

With so much of the race left and so few all-around threats in the field, the lead is not insurmountable, but it will force Armstrong and his teammates to be aggressive from here on. And despite Tuesday’s exhibition that seemingly showed he is a cheetah among antelopes, superior in the hunt, it could affect his chances in today’s potentially excruciating 19.87-mile uphill individual time trial starting in nearby Grenoble.

“There’s no bluffing in a time trial,” Armstrong said. “The scary thing is, that was everything I had, there. I couldn’t have gone any harder. It’s tough to recover from a stage like that and do an individual time trial up a difficult climb like Chamrousse. I might pay for that effort. I could lose two minutes. I hope not.”

Armstrong is only the second American to triumph at 6,012-foot-high L’Alpe d’Huez, renowned for its 21 switchbacks. His former Motorola teammate, Andy Hampsten, won in 1992. Hampsten, now retired and living in northern Italy, said before the race that he expected Armstrong to get serious in the Alps.

“I hate to say it, but I told you so,” Hampsten said. “It was an interesting tactic early on to get Telekom to do all the work--since he isn’t in the yellow jersey, today might have been his only chance to have another team do that.

“The first stage in the mountains is important. The climbers really aren’t ready yet. It’s an opportunity to bash people over the head.”

Indeed, new overall leader Simon, who rides for the Bonjour team, looked somewhat dazed when he made his postrace comments after finishing 29th.

“It’s great,” he said. “But I know I’m not coming out of the Pyrenees [stages later this week] with the yellow.”

Armstrong said he was aiming in part to give his battered U.S. Postal Service teammates a psychological shot of adrenaline. The team’s Christian Vande Velde was knocked out of the race after a serious crash last weekend and most of his former teammates are suffering from minor injuries or illness, although Roberto Heras and Jose Luis Rubiera were able-bodied enough to escort Armstrong through most of the stage.

“I sit around the dinner table and see one guy sick, one guy’s crashed a couple times and one guy’s gone,” Armstrong said. “It was my idea and my impression that this team needed to win a stage, and win it sooner rather than later.”

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Tour de France at a Glance

A look at Tuesday’s 10th stage:

Stage--A grueling 129.58-mile stretch through the French Alps from Aix-Les-Bains to the summit of L’Alpe d’Huez, one of the most venerated climbs in cycling. It ends with a 3,712-foot climb over 9.9 miles.

Winner--Two-time defending champion Lance Armstrong in 6 hours 23 minutes 47 seconds.

How others fared--1997 champion Jan Ullrich was second, 1:59 behind Armstrong. Francois Simon of France took the yellow jersey.

Quote of the day--”We decided to play poker a bit.”--Lance Armstrong, on his race strategy. He trailed Ullrich for most of the stage, then surged ahead in the last mountain pass.

Next stage--A mountain individual time trial from Grenoble to Chamrousse, covering 20 miles.

Source: Tour de France