The Chain Gang Cycle Tours

Lance Armstrong - Tour de France - He’s Quite Good At Cycling Too

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In last month’s issue of ‘Pro Cycling’ there was a little snippet about Lance Armstrong, particularly about a 6-minute clip on YouTube.

We all know about Lance on a bike. Back in the ‘90s we had 5 years of Miguel Indurain winning the Tour de France with a very clever and well-executed game plan. He was overwhelmingly the strongest time triallist.

Usually there are two time trials in each Tour de France, and Indurain would gain so much time over the climbers that they couldn’t win enough time back as they cycled through the Alps and the Pyrenees. But he was a great climber, and none of the other top time triallists could gain time on him in the mountains.

So for 5 years he had the same plan. Win 3, 4 or even 5 minutes in the time trials. And in the mountains, defend that lead against the other ‘overall classification’ contenders. He didn’t attack in the mountains - he didn’t have to, he was ahead. The others had to attack, and he’d follow their wheel and they weren’t strong enough to leave him behind.

I always liked Indurain, but lots of cycling fans thought he was boring because he rarely attacked, and we didn’t get exciting mountain stages where the yellow jersey was under threat. His plan worked until the Dane, Bjarne Riis, improved his time trialling so much that he was able to tear up the script.

Much as I liked Indurain, Armstrong was a more exciting rider. He did attack. He always tried to win in the first really hard mountain stage, which was usually the first time he took the yellow jersey. But he also believed that the leader, the winner of the Tour de France, had a duty to win the final time trial. The winner of the Yellow Jersey is the strongest rider in the Peloton, and Lance’s view was that the strongest rider should win the final time trial.

One of my favourite Lance moments, though, was in a mountain stage in 2004 with Andreas Kloden and Jan Ullrich from the Telekom team, and his own team mate Floyd Landis.

Floyd wasn’t especially high in the overall standings, but Lance, Kloden and Ullrich were 1^st, 3rd and 4^th. Kloden and Ullrich attacked in an attempt to take time out of Lance. Floyd Landis stayed with them and won rave reviews for the way he supported Lance throughout the stage.

Close to the finish line Lance encouraged Landis to make a break for the stage win on the basis that if he, Lance, wasn’t involved in the attack there was no reason for Kloden or Ullrich to deprive Landis of the stage win.

This is a regular thing in the Tour, riders allow team mates their day of glory. Lance didn’t need another stage win, and winning the stage did no good for Kloden or Ullrich, what they had to do was beat Lance by a long way. Well, that wasn’t possible anymore, so Lance thought he could engineer a career-boosting win for his team mate.

When Ullrich and Kloden attacked Landis, Armstrong went mad and sprinted wildly after them. He took the lead just as they all crossed the line in a quite magnificent uphill sprint. As a General Classification (GC) rider he doesn’t have to sprint. It’s a different set of bike skills, and it’s dangerous.

It was really amazing to watch this incredible cyclist overhaul his 2 leading contenders in that sprint for the line. It might seem like hyperbole, but it was a truly amazing performance. You can see it (with a Dutch commentary) on this clip: Watch Tour de France 2004 - Armstrong Super Sprint

But now he’s retired, and is devoting more time to raising awareness about cancer, and promoting prevention, early detection, and so on. If you watch this clip, then in the words of Pro Cycling, whatever your views about Lance Armstrong, just pretend for 6 minutes that you’ve never heard of him, then try and tell yourself you wouldn’t vote for him if he was standing for election.

I’m in awe of Lance, of course I am, all cycling fans are, just as we’re in awe of Eddy Merckx and so many others. But he is extremely impressive in this clip, you’ll enjoy it. Watch Lance Armstrong Interview

Of course, Lance has never been on a Chain Gang holiday (although you’re always welcome Lance), but if he did he might wear a shirt a bit like Laura’s, who has been on a Chain Gang holiday.

Looking Foward to The Tour de France

This is the time of year when I start following the cycling press. It’s the run-up to the classics of Belgium, Holland and Northern France, and it’s the first chance we get to run the rule over the runners and riders of this year’s Tour de France.I know lots of Chain Gang cyclists who follow Le Tour, and on all our bike tours in France throughout July we get to see what a spectacle it is, but I am often reminded how little is understood in the wider world about this incredible race.

The average crowd for the Tour de France is 1 million people. Every day for 3 weeks! It is so spectacular. More people watch the Tour de France every year than every single World Cup and Olympics ever held, added up together. Football is my first sporting love, but I do love the Tour de France.

One thing that intrigues me is the often-held view that Lance Armstrong is widely derided in France as a drug cheat, and is not popular. In my experience, he is an absolute hero in France.

When you are cycling up a hill, and a French driver shouts out of a car window (which they will often do), what they shout is “Armstrong”. Obviously they can hardly pronounce it, so it’s sometimes difficult to understand, but if you speak to a French cycling fan, they want to talk about Lance.

One of my favourite stories about Lance was his quote about Jan Ullrich - Fat Jan, as he’s known among cycling fans. I can’t remember which Tour it was, and I can’t remember exactly the quote, but basically the gist was this: “Where was Jan on New Year’s Day when I was training in the pissing rain?”.

Lance always maintained that Ullrich had the greater natural talent, but in the most famous of all cycle races, his record was seven to nil. This blog isn’t meant to be a measured view of the merits of one cyclist or another, it’s just about what I think, and I think Lance was a wonderful racing cyclist.

The French media might not like Lance, and of course I might be wrong, but in my experience he is revered in France as an extraordinary cyclist, and a wonderful champion. Not the best ever - that accolade surely must go to Eddy ‘The Cannibal’ Merckx, for reasons we can discuss another day. But for me, after Eddy, it’s Lance.

And after Lance I was completely convinced it would be Ivan Basso, who subsequently got banned in the fall out from the Puerto affair. So who will it be this year? I’d love to talk in more detail about the merits of each of the riders, but again, that’s for another day. If it’s possible that Ivan rides, he’ll win. If not, I’d put money on Contador to win again.

I feel fairly certain that if Cadel Evans had known how close he would be at the end of 2007, he could have stuck 21 seconds closer to Contador and Rasmussen in those amazing tussles in the Pyrenees. And now he’d be the champion. But he never attacks, never. And Contador, having won, will be able to exert an authority on his team that will enable him to wring more advantage from his incredible climbing.

Unless, of course, there’s an Eddy or a Lance just waiting there. And the Spring classics are our first clue.