Armstrong All but Clinches Tour de France Title

It was the most difficult of his victories, the one most fraught with bad luck, bad falls, bad karma.

But when Lance Armstrong pedals down the Champs-Elysees today, it should be his final, triumphant lap before winning his fifth consecutive Tour de France title. And his most satisfying.

On a rainy, windy Saturday, in the final time trial -- where riders take off one by one, in inverse order of their standing, and race against nothing but the clock -- Armstrong appeared to clinch the overall title with a third-place finish and an 11-second advantage over his closest pursuer, Jan Ullrich, who skidded out of contention.

Heading into today’s final stage, a 94.2-mile trip from the Paris suburb of Ville d’Avray to the Champs-Elysees, Armstrong has a 1-minute 16-second lead over Ullrich, who has been runner-up in the Tour four times. He won the race in 1997.

Tour protocol is that no one tries to overtake the leader on the final day. And Armstrong’s United States Postal Service teammates would repel any such attack. Nothing but an unexpected illness or shocking crash would cost Armstrong his hard-earned win.

Only Spaniard Miguel Indurain (1991-1995) has won five consecutive Tours since the race began in 1903. Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil and Belgian Eddy Merckx won five in a career.

After having won his first four titles with safe leads of six minutes or more, Armstrong, a 31-year-old cancer survivor from Austin, Texas, has struggled from the start of this competition.

He was part of a 35-rider crash at the end of the first stage July 6. Although Armstrong suffered only bruises, Tyler Hamilton, from Marblehead, Mass., broke his collarbone. Hamilton, after nearly quitting, has recovered to stand in fourth place overall. It would be the best finish by Americans since Greg Lemond and Andy Hampsten placed first and fourth in 1989.

After the strong USPS team established a working cushion for Armstrong with a dominating performance in the team time trial during the first week, Armstrong labored through the record-setting heat that followed the race into the Alps and through the south.

Iban Mayo threatened Armstrong’s infallible reputation by winning the important L’Alpe d’Huez climb, and Ullrich nearly took the yellow jersey from Armstrong by dominating the first individual time trial July 18 and chopping 96 seconds off Armstrong’s lead. In the 104-degree heat, Armstrong lost nearly 13 pounds and the severe dehydration caused him to labor for two more days.

But on the final big day in the Pyrenees, a stage that ended with a big climb up to Luz-Ardiden, Armstrong created a moment that will live in Tour lore.

As he was making a last, big attack, the strap of a fan’s bag got tangled in Armstrong’s handlebars. Armstrong crashed, but as Ullrich and the other riders held up. Armstrong returned to the race and reasserted his dominance.

Still, Ullrich was within striking distance -- 65 seconds -- as Saturday’s 30.4-mile time trial began.

Starting two minutes ahead of Armstrong, and knowing he needed to push the attack, Ullrich took a bad fall less than 10 miles from the finish and lost any hope he had of erasing Armstrong’s lead.

The weather -- a blowing rain off the Atlantic Ocean -- made the course treacherously slippery. Ullrich lost control and fell in an S-curve.

With the advantage of starting last and getting word of Ullrich’s fall, Armstrong rode the final portion of the course conservatively.

“Lance’s instincts have always been to push the limits,” his trainer, Chris Carmichael, said. “It’s been a long process for him to learn attacking isn’t always the best. He’s gotten a lot smarter.”

Armstrong said that when he got news of Ullrich’s fall, “I told myself, ‘Take it easy. Ride safely.’ I just wanted to get to the line in one piece and save the overall victory. I was not desperate for a stage victory.”

He finished third in the time trial, 14 seconds behind Britain’s David Millar -- who won in 54 minutes 5 seconds -- and five seconds behind Hamilton.

As he crossed the finish line, Armstrong pumped his right fist and smiled, a rare sight in this emotional, rocky, topsy-turvy Tour.

When he received his ceremonial yellow jersey, the one awarded to the overall leader each day, Armstrong threw his hands up and tossed his daily bouquet of flowers into the crowd.

“This has absolutely been the most difficult year for many reasons,” Armstrong said. “Physically I was not super, tactically some mistakes were made. Being this close, the Tour feels different and feels better than the others.”

After his fall, Ullrich, a 29-year-old from Rostock, Germany, finished the stage. But he never regained his rhythm and slumped over his handlebars at the end.

While Ullrich stayed dry in his hotel room Saturday morning, watching a video of the course, Armstrong and USPS team leader Johann Bruyneel were out driving the route, seeing how hard the rain was falling, noting the slickness of the pavement in the many roundabouts and paying attention to how dangerous it might be to cut corners too closely, even to save time.

When Armstrong took off, shortly after 4 p.m. in Pornic, the starting point, the cries of “Allez, Lance, allez!” could be heard urging him to “Go!”

A Frenchman grabbed the American flag from another’s hand and waved it for a moment. “Allez, Lance,” he said.

By the time Ullrich fell, he had gained only about seven seconds on Armstrong. Ullrich, who missed last year’s Tour while recovering from knee surgery and serving a suspension for using recreational drugs, seemed to take the curve at a dangerous angle. First his front wheel spun wildly, then his back wheel lost traction.

“It wasn’t necessary for me to take risks,” Armstrong said. “With the lead, it wasn’t my responsibility to take risks. It was Ullrich’s responsibility to take risks.”

Ullrich, who stopped only briefly to speak to German television, said he thought he hadn’t done anything dangerous. “It was just bad conditions,” he said.

Armstrong afterward spoke at length of his struggles.

He recounted how a bad fall in his spring prep race, the Dauphine Libere, left lingering pain, about a stomach flu a few days before the Tour began, about how a pair of new bicycling shoes were uncomfortable.

The first time-trial loss was the worst moment. “The mixture of physical problems, tactical errors, just bad luck, having crashes and near-crashes, it gives you mental and physical stress,” Armstrong said.

This was not a hint, though, that Armstrong would not be back next year, trying for an unprecedented sixth title.

“I’ll be back,” Armstrong said, “and I’m not coming back to get second.”

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At a glance

A brief look at Saturday’s 19th and next-to-last stage of the 90th Tour de France:

Stage: A 30.4-mile individual time trial from Pornic to Nantes. Riders went out one by one to race against the clock. Rain made the course slippery.

* Winner: David Millar of Britain, in 54 minutes 5 seconds.

* How others fared: Tyler Hamilton of the United States was second in 54:14; overall leader Lance Armstrong of the United States was third in 54:19; Jan Ullrich of Germany fell off his bike, got back on and finished fourth in 54:30.

* Yellow jersey: Armstrong kept the overall lead, meaning he almost certainly will tie the record by winning his fifth straight Tour when the race ends today in Paris. Miguel Indurain won the race five times in a row from 1991-95. Armstrong’s overall time is 80:02:08 -- 1:16 ahead of Ullrich.

* Quote of the day: “I don’t plan on being this vulnerable again next year, I really don’t.” -- Armstrong, after a Tour full of mishaps and a tough challenge from Ullrich.

* Next stage: Today’s 20th and final stage is 94.2 miles from Ville d’Avray to the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Los Angeles Times