Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Sunday, July 03, 2005

The Beginning of the End

Unless you've been hiding under a rock or haven't been watching the news, you already know that today Lance Armstrong started the last professional bike race of his career.And what a start is was. He didn't win the short time trial that replaced the traditional prologue that usually starts The Tour but his second place finish is just as good.

The victory went to American David Zabriskie who now has the honor of having won a stange in all three of the "Grand Tours" in a twelve month period; something only a very select few cyclists in the history of the sport can claim. Lance, however, put over a minute into most of his rivals for the yellow jersey. Ullrich, Leipheimer, Landis, Basso all all finished over 60 seconds behind Lance in the 12 mile first stage. That's a huge margin. Alexander Vinokurov was "only" 53 seconds back and may be the only real challenger Lance has in this, his final race.

It was also a good day for American cycling with six of the eight American competing in the Tour finishing in the top 20. That's a great sign that even once Lance retirres, the Americans will still have a lot to say in the historically European dominated sport. Just as interesting, as the race begins the traditional sprinter's stages as the race route winds its way towards the mountains, is the possibility that the competition for the points jersey just might be dominated by Australians.

That'll have to wait until the morning.

Thanks for Reading.

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