Armstrong seems unlikely to win
“We’re waiting for a G’Lance,” read the sign on a front porch of a beach home at Snapper Point, where today’s fifth stage of the Tour Down Under began.
That’s about all cycling fans ever hope for, a glance of their favorite cyclist as the peloton goes past at speeds approaching 50 mph, and so there have been a lot of “Was that Lance?” questions as Lance Armstrong made his comeback at this six-day race.
Those who lined the highest climb of this tour, a 7.5% gradient up a 1 1/2 -mile Willunga Hill done twice for good measure, had a better chance of getting more than a glance, especially the second time up.
There was a nasty swirling wind to provide a little extra trickery and bit of a slowdown.
Armstrong didn’t win the stage, but he made his presence felt. He led an attack on the second climb up the hill, more of a leg test than an absolute effort to win, but it earned enthusiastic cheers from the estimated 105,000 people who lined the roads, three times the numbers from a year ago when Armstrong wasn’t racing.
Allan Davis, a quiet Australian who rides for the Belgian Quick Step team, won today’s fifth stage that started on the beach at Snapper Point and finished 92 miles later at the bottom of Willunga Hill, a modest mountain by Tour de France standards but tough enough early in the season when all the cyclists are still planning to drop weight and gain endurance.
“That was tough,” said Armstrong who finished 23rd in the stage and is 29th place overall, 49 seconds behind Davis, a 28-year-old who said he was thrilled with his performance.
“I didn’t crack,” Davis said. “I wasn’t sure about today, but I did it.”
Davis has a 25-second lead over fellow Australian Stuart O’Grady, who rides for the Saxo Bank team. Sunday’s finishing stage is a circuit through the streets of Adelaide where there is little chance for Davis to lose the lead.
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