Cycling Round Up

Tour de France:  2002

ARMSTRONG CHASES FOURTH TOUR WIN:

(By Shane Stokes July 5) Lance Armstrong continues his ambitious march towards joining the illustrious club of five-times Tour de France winners tomorrow, when the 2002 Tour de France gets under way in Luxembourg. Winner in 1999, 2000 and 2001, the Texan has been in impressive form this season and the expectation that he will build on his Midi-Libre and Dauphiné Libéré-winning condition should see him once more as the dominant rider in the Tour peloton.

Last season Armstrong took time out of his rivals on almost every crucial stage, dropping Jan Ullrich and all of the other contenders on the climb of l'Alpe d'Huez and then disposing of them at will in the other mountain-top finishes of the race. The US Postal rider was in invincible shape and, unlike other years, never seemed to have had a moment of difficulty during the three-week event.

Armstrong also won both long time trials in that Tour and this, plus his climbing prowess, ensures that he is the most 'complete' of the riders currently competing on the professional circuit. Like Indurain before him, it now seems that the only person capable of beating Armstrong is Armstrong himself; in other words, it would take a drastic drop in his own condition for him to be bettered by another rider. As long as the American arrives at the start line in perfect shape and remains healthy during the Tour - and of course avoids all possible mishaps - he is clear favourite to continue his domination of the race.

So far, things are going to plan. His form has been encouragingly good this year, with those stage race victories and also some impressive rides in the one-day classics which were intended to help Postal team- mate George Hincape take one of the big early season trophies. Hincape may have ultimately failed in this regard but his leader's strong display will have further disheartened those rivals trying to convince themselves that this will be the year that they finally topple Armstrong.

Nevertheless, there are many who are ready to snatch the crown should the Tour King falter. The perennial second-place finisher Jan Ullrich is the most obvious candidate, but this season a lingering knee injury has ruled out his participation in the race. Despite his impressive palmares, Ullrich is regarded by some as a rider who has squandered his immense talent and the suggestions by his own Telecom team management that he is lacking in the necessary discipline go some way towards explaining why he has never repeated his 1997 Tour win. News this week of a positive test for amphetamines will further frustrate the German squad; one can only presume that Ullrich is now regretting his statement of two years ago when he called for a life ban for drug users.

So, the prime contender may be absent but there are many others who are aiming to block Armstrong's path towards a fourth straight Tour win. Joseba Beloki finished third in 2000 and 2001 and both he and team-mate Igor González de Galdeano are spoken of as potential winners, despite ONCE's persistent failure to win the Tour. The team may have taken countless victories in the shorter stage races and also won the Tour of Spain, but their preparations for July have never really produced the goods.

Indeed this has led to lingering questions about the pre-Tour preparations prescribed by directeur sportif Manolo Saiz, who has a reputation for overstressing his riders. Critics of his training and racing philosophies will point to the performance of Laurent Jalabert last season, who produced his best Tour performance in years after quitting ONCE for CSC, and also to Beloki's dramatic collapse in the 2002 Vuelta. Nevertheless, Beloki and González de Galdeano must still be regarded as threats to Armstrong: could this be the year the Spanish squad finally get it right?

Kelme duo Oscar Sevilla and Santiago Botero also rank amongst those being spoken of as likely challengers, with the latter in great time- trialling condition and praying for a return to the sort of climbing form which landed him the 2000 King of the Mountains title. Two of Armstrong's former team-mates have also got their sights set on the Maillot Jaune - Tyler Hamilton (CSC-Tiscali) finished second in the Tour of Italy, despite a broken shoulder, and is reportedly now in far better condition than he was going into the Giro. Rabobank's Levi Leipheimer is similarly in great shape and the affable all-rounder will be encouraged by his third place finish in last year's Tour of Spain and his more recent victory in the Route de Sud.

French hopes Richard Virenque (Domo) and Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole) also rank in the list of favourites, although the latter has said that he will concentrate his efforts on trying to land a record- equalling sixth polka-dot jersey rather than challenging Armstrong, whom he regards as unbeatable. Moreau is less defeatist and dreams of becoming the first French Tour winner since Bernard Hinault in 1985; a top five placing is, however, a far more realistic target.

The first pointers as to who is in form will come in tomorrow's prologue time trial in Luxembourg. A flat-out 7.3 kilometre lung- buster, this and Wednesday's team time trial are the first challenges for the overall contenders, who will otherwise sit back and let the sprinters and one-day specialists fight it out for stage wins. The yellow-jersey aspirants' next important rendezvous comes on Monday week, July 15th, in a 52 kilometre individual time trial from Lancaster to Lorient, with the high mountains looming for the first time three days later.

Following two days in the Pyrenees - where the contenders will slug it out to the summit finishes of La Mongie and the Plateau de Beille, and Armstrong's principal rivals will reveal themselves - the peloton will wind its way east towards the Alps and the fearsome climb of Mont Ventoux on Sunday July 21st. More mountain-top finishes await at Les Deux Alpes and La Plagne, while the penultimate stage brings a 50 kilometre individual time trial and the last possible change of the yellow jersey.

In all, the riders are facing 21 days of effort and a total of 3,000 kilometres. This Tour is one of the shortest on record, a move which the organisers hope will help to reduce doping within the peloton, but which also offers the prospect of faster, more aggressive racing á la recent Tours of Spain.

2001 TOUR DECLARED ‘DOPING-FREE’

(By Shane Stokes May 8) The French Conseil de Prevention et Lutte contre le Dopage (CPLD) has declared that the 2001 Tour de France was free from doping, following several months of analyses on the samples provided by riders during the race.

The independent body, which was set up after the events of the 1998 Tour, generated controversy last Autumn when it stated that a high number of riders had used forbidden substances during the Tour. However the CLPD has now accepted that the traces of these products reflected a genuine medical use and one which was permissible under sports law.

It had previously been criticized by cycling’s governing body, the UCI, for making its initial ‘doping’ declaration without recognizing the validity of the medical certificates held by the riders. These certificates permit the topical application of some products containing cortisone in order to treat wounds and the use of certain inhalers to relieve asthma.

ULLRICH WITHDRAWS FROM 2002 TOUR DE FRANCE

(By Shane Stokes May 7) Lance Armstrong’s chances of winning a fourth straight Tour de France this July received a boost today with the news that his arch-rival Jan Ullrich has been forced to pull out of this year’s race. The 1997 Tour winner finished second to Armstrong in 2000 and 2001, but despite his vow to beat the American this year, Ullrich has missed most of the season due to a knee injury caused by overtraining. 

The Telecom rider had felt recently that he had recovered from the strain, but the symptoms flared up again during interval training. Ullrich has decided to withdraw from the Tour start in Luxembourg on July 6th as he feels he does not have sufficient time to prepare for the three- week race. The news is a big blow to the career of the German who became one of the youngest Tour de France winners ever in 1997. It was predicted by many that he would dominate the race for years but injury, weight problems and Armstrong’s domination have prevented him from taking another Tour title.