Armstrong Can’t Slip Under Anyone’s Radar

A year ago when Lance Armstrong dominated the Tour de France, he ruled the mountains, winning all three stages in the Alps.

Today, the 2005 Tour makes its first true Alpine climb.

The starting line has been moved from the city center here to a spot seven miles out of town to appease local farmers, who’d threatened to block the Tour route in protest over wolf attacks on their sheep and cattle. The 119.6-mile stage will finish in the ski village of Courchevel after riders have taken two climbs that are rated Category 1, the hardest.

“Lance is sitting pretty and licking his lips,” said CSC team rider Bobby Julich.

After wearing the leader’s symbolic yellow jersey for five days, Armstrong lost it Sunday to Germany’s Jens Voigt.

Coming out of Monday’s rest day, the first of two on the 21-stage, 2,224-mile bike ride, Armstrong stands third overall, 2 minutes 18 seconds behind Voigt. Frenchman Christophe Moreau is second, but neither Voigt nor Moreau is considered a threat to Armstrong, shooting for an unprecedented seventh consecutive Tour victory.

Armstrong is at least a minute ahead of all the true contenders. Those would include the trio of riders from T-Mobile -- Jan Ullrich, Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Kloden -- plus Voigt and Julich’s CSC teammate Ivan Basso, Americans Floyd Landis and Levi Leipheimer and intrepid climber Roberto Heras of Spain.

The day before Armstrong lost the yellow jersey he had worn since last Tuesday, all eight of his Discovery Channel teammates had left him alone on the final, long climb of Stage 8. Speculation then was that Armstrong’s teammates might be letting him down.

But Julich, who has ridden with and competed against Armstrong since they were junior cyclists 15 years ago, said that he would be surprised if Armstrong were not wearing the yellow jersey again soon.

Julich pointed to the opening stage, an individual time trial in which Armstrong finished a strong second to Julich’s teammate, David Zabriskie, and more than a minute faster than all the contenders.

“That was scary, what Lance did that first day,” Julich said. “We were jumping around, excited for Dave, but at the same time shaking our heads that Lance was that much better than the rest. It shows he has strong legs.”

There is some mystery about the state of T-Mobile.

Ostensibly, the team leader is Ullrich, Armstrong’s unlucky foil. Ullrich, a German, won the Tour in 1997 and has finished second five times. The day before this Tour began, he crashed during a training ride.

He crashed again Sunday on a benign mountain descent and needed a trip to the hospital Monday for X-rays. Those were negative, but Ullrich hasn’t ridden with much fight yet.

His teammate from Kazakhstan, Vinokourov, has been feisty, though.

Vinokourov made major attacks Saturday and Sunday. “He’ll attack again, you can be sure,” said CSC director Bjarne Riis.

Two years ago, Vinokourov was a strong third-place finisher. He missed last year’s Tour after a springtime crash. Now Vinokourov is fifth overall and 1:02 behind Armstrong. Ullrich is eighth, 1:36 behind Armstrong.

“We have a clear agreement,” Vinokourov said Monday. “The best man on the team is captain. When I was third in 2003, I realized I could stand two steps further up. I missed last year. This could be my year. I just hope my friendship with Jan is strong enough.”

Riis said anybody who wanted to unseat Armstrong would have to attack.

“We will, T-Mobile will,” CSC’s Riis said. “It will start [today].”

“The mountains put everybody back in their place,” said Johan Bruyneel, the Discovery Channel sports director. “I know I can’t wait to see what happens. It wouldn’t be much fun if we already knew.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

OVERALL LEADERS

1. Jens Voigt, Germany 32:18:23

2. Christophe Moreau, France 1:50 behind

3. Lance Armstrong, U.S. 2:18 behind

4. Mickael Rasmussen, Denmark 2:43 behind

5. Alexandre Vinokourov, Kazakhstan 3:20 behind

6. Bobby Julich, U.S. 3:25 behind

7. van Basso, Italy 3:44 behind

8. Jan Ullrich, Germany 3:54 behind

9. Carlos Sastre, Spain 3:54 behind

10. George Hincapie, U.S. 4:05 behind