Armstrong Stands Alone

This time he did it alone. Lance Armstrong rode to the summit of this Pyrenees ski resort without a Discovery Team escort. He broke the endurance of Alexandre Vinokourov, Christophe Moreau, Andreas Kloeden, Floyd Landis, even climbing monster Mickael Rasmussen.

It took a little longer until Jan Ullrich was left behind and it wasn’t until the last few meters when Armstrong spurted ahead of Ivan Basso. With sweat dripping from his arms and legs and without a silver and blue-clad mate in sight, Armstrong finished second in Saturday’s 137-mile 14th stage of the Tour de France.

His overall lead grew from 38 seconds over Rasmussen to 1:41. Basso is third, 2:46 behind; Ullrich is fourth, 4:34 behind; Vinokourov fell back to ninth overall, 7:09 behind.

“Lance was strong,” Vinokourov said. “But we’ll keep attacking.”

Americans Levi Leipheimer and Landis moved up to fifth and sixth overall, enhancing the possibility that two U.S. cyclists could be on the podium for the first time when the Tour finishes in Paris next Sunday.

A tearful Georg Totschnig became only the second Austrian in history to win a stage when he held off Armstrong and Basso and climbed the final summit in searing heat that had passed 95 degrees most of the afternoon. Totschnig won the stage in 5 hours 43 minutes 43 seconds, 56 seconds ahead of Armstrong.

After throwing his arms in the air, Totschnig, 34, and a Gerolsteiner teammate of Leipheimer’s, fell to the hot pavement and wept.

“I had an extraordinary day,” Totschnig said. “I didn’t think it was possible for me to win a stage like that with Lance Armstrong chasing me. On the last kilometer I shut off my brain. I just pedaled and pedaled. I couldn’t even zip up my jersey at the finish line.”

Totschnig said he almost withdrew last week after feeling ill. “Now,” he said, “I have the biggest day in my sporting life.”

Last week, when Armstrong’s teammates lost contact with their 33-year-old leader, Armstrong said it would be a problem if the same thing happened again.

It happened again Saturday, with Discovery mountain specialist Manuel Beltran out of the race with a concussion, when T-Mobile made several attacks.

The final one came during the day’s steepest rise, a 9.4-mile climb up Port de Pailheres, when Vinokourov led T-Mobile on its final stab at Armstrong’s advantage. Soon Armstrong was the only Discovery Channel rider climbing the ascent.

“It’s scary when you see an entire team go to the front and ride as hard as they can,” Armstrong said. “Naturally you fear that situation. You either fight back or run away. I wasn’t going to run away and I was motivated to not be gotten down by the tactic. But they did a good job. If I was the director, I’d make the same call.”

Two years ago Armstrong struggled up this same climb in similar heat while suffering from dehydration. It was the closest he has come to losing during his six-year domination of the Tour.

“It was incredibly hot again,” Armstrong said. “It was a similar situation again with Jan and Ivan. I kept trying to remember my training day here six weeks ago because I felt better then.”

On the final climb, with Totschnig going alone to the finish, Armstrong, Basso and Ullrich rode together, each taking a turn at the front. Each called for the team car and grabbed water bottles both for drinking and for pouring over their heads, chests and legs.

Basso seemed to ride with a smile on his face. Ullrich was pulling in air through clenched teeth while Armstrong set his mouth in a straight, hard line.

With Armstrong setting the pace Ullrich finally fell back. Whenever Basso would try to put distance between himself and Armstrong, Armstrong would pull even. Finally, in the last couple of kilometers, Armstrong stood up and pushed hard. Basso didn’t pull even.

“I tried to attack on the Pailheres,” Basso said. “It was a long climb and I wanted to make some differences on the others. It’s impossible to attack Armstrong. He’s too strong and once again he didn’t show any signs of weakness.

“We’ll try again tomorrow. Maybe it will be possible to try to win the stage, but Armstrong will want to win as well. It’s going to be hard.”

Armstrong though said he wasn’t interested in winning stages. He has no individual wins during this Tour after winning five a year ago.

“It’s not important,” Armstrong said. “I hope to win one. I’d like to win tomorrow. But tactics are tactics. Today we let an attack go up the road and get 10-15 minutes so we could keep the team together.”

The consensus is that today’s 127.7-mile stage from Lezat-sur-Leze to Saint-Lary-Soulan, which has five rated climbs, plus the toughest “hors categorie” ascent of six miles at an 8.3% grade to the finish line, is the most difficult day of this 21-stage race.

“We’re going to have a hard time recovering from today,” Armstrong said. “If it’s this hot tomorrow, a lot of guys will be going home.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Tour de France: today’s Stage 15

In another day of climbing, the route passes through Spain and along some of the most vigorous uphills of the Tour.

Stage length: 127.7 miles

Average duration: 6 hours 5 minutes

*

Elevation

672.5 ft.

4,425.8 ft.

5,511.8 ft.

*

Sources: Tour de France Society, Associated Press

Los Angeles Times

*

STAGE 14 AT A GLANCE

* Stage: Saturday’s 14th stage took riders into the Pyrenees for the first time on a brutal 137-mile trek from Agde to Ax-3 Domaines.

* Winner: Georg Totschnig, Austria, Gerolsteiner, in 5 hours 43 minutes 43 seconds.

* How others fared: Lance Armstrong, United States, Discovery Channel, was second, 56 seconds behind; Ivan Basso, Italy, Team CSC, was third, 58 seconds behind; Jan Ullrich, Germany, T-Mobile, was fourth, 1:16 behind.

* Yellow jersey: Six-time champion Armstrong keeps the yellow jersey and extends his lead over Mickael Rasmussen of Denmark to 1:41 and over Basso to 2:46. Ullrich is 4:34 behind.

* Quote of the day: “We don’t have a choice. The Gods deal us the weather and you have to be smart about it. I tried to put as much water on my head and legs as possible, stay cool and ride a conservative race.”-- Armstrong said of the heat.

* On the web: For more information on the Tour de France, including Diane Pucin’s blog, photo galleries and up-to-the-minute standings, please visit latimes.com/tour.

*--* OVERALL LEADERS STAGE 13 RESULTS 1. Lance 1. Georg Armstrong, Totschnig, U.S. Austria 55:58:17 5:43:43 2. Mickael 2. Lance Rasmussen, Denmark Armstrong, U.S. 1:41 behind 56 sec. behind 3. Ivan Basso, 3. Ivan Basso, Italy 2:46 behind Italy :58 behind 4. Jan Ullrich, 4. Jan Ullrich, Germany 4:34 Germany 1:16 behind 5. Levi 5. Levi Leipheimer, U.S. Leipheimer, U.S. 4:45 behind 1:31

*--*