|
PARIS (AP) -- He's run them ragged for
six straight years and injected American star power into the
Tour de France. Many rivals of Lance Armstrong, cowed by his
unparalleled success, are eagerly waiting for his flame to
burn out.
The Texan made history this past summer
when he rode across the finish line wearing the Tour
leader's yellow jersey on the Champs-Elys Dees for a record
sixth time.
Doubts remain about when he'll try for
No. 7, but for some, the retirement party couldn't come soon
enough.
"In the last few years, we've been
working a bit for the future _ for the post-Armstrong --
because he's simply unbeatable," said Eusebio Unzue,
sporting director for Spanish team Illes Balears-B.
Santander.
Among possible Armstrong successors the
biggest buzz is about 26-year-old Italian Ivan Basso. He
finished third, after coming in 11th in 2002 and seventh a
year ago.
Illes Balears features young Russian
stars Vladimir Karpets and Denis Menchov -- respectively the
best young Tour riders this year and last. Team leader
Francisco Mancebo was sixth overall in 2004.
"Mancebo is just waiting for him
(Armstrong) to leave -- as we all are," Unzue
said.
Since Armstrong's reign began in 1999,
rivals have pursued the scraps he left behind, collecting
impressive -- albeit lesser _ laurels as the race's best
climber, sprinter or young rider.
A cartoon Monday in sports daily L'Equipe
showed a wanted poster with a half-dozen pictures of
Armstrong and the caption: "It's been six years we've been
chasing after him!"
Rivals can take heart. At 32, Armstrong
is much closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
On Sunday, he vowed to race again in his favorite
competition, but not necessarily next year.
The next generation will inherit
Armstrong's mark on the Tour's culture. He has helped remold
the race into a highly professional, rigorous
affair.
Riders now study course routes much more
than before. Meticulous training regimens, top-dollar
sponsorships, and technological advances like rider radios
and earphones are now commonplace.
Even after three victories by fellow
American Greg Lemond in 1986, 1989 and 1990, the Tour was
still largely a parochial, while celebrated, European affair
until Armstrong came along.
He dragged the three-week marathon into
prime-time.
His remarkable comeback from testicular
cancer to win cycling's showcase race created millions more
fans worldwide.
Armstrong brought laser-like focus -- and
largely ignored other major races such as the Italian Giro
or Spanish Vuelta.
Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team has
set a new bar for performance, by concentrating all its
firepower around helping its star win, said Bobby Julich, a
CSC teammate of Basso.
Continue
|
|
"U.S. Postal does
the most preparation, and we are starting to prepare like
that also," Julich said. "I think we have a future Tour
winner with Ivan Basso -- so I'm sure we're going to be
committing a lot more effort to doing the sort of things
that Postal has done.
"He's made it more clinical. He's a
surgeon, man, and he goes to work," Julich said of
Armstrong.
Critics complain he has brought an
American mind-set to the race, making it more methodical and
calculated -- and yanking the competition away from its
European roots.
Before his day, "an American in cycling
was comparable to a French baseball team in the World
Series," Armstrong wrote in his book, "It's Not About the
Bike."
"There was a big difference between the
discreet jockeying of European cycling, and the swaggering,
trash-talking American idea of competition I was reared
with," he wrote.
U.S. fans are just as brash. A roadside
banner on the mythical L'Alpe d'Huez featured a map of
France in U.S. stars and stripes with the words: "American
owned and operated since 1999."
The marathon race has entranced
Armstrong, conjuring his near-obsession about winning. Since
1999, he has shown a killer instinct that few have been able
to match.
Like Michael Jordan, who would psych out
rivals with his skill at performing his best when the
pressure was the highest, Armstrong has achieved a
definitive psychological edge over other racers.
Germany's Andreas Kloden, the Tour
runner-up, got a dose of the mind game in the hardest Alpine
stage, when an unbending Armstrong sped past him to win a
sprint finish in the last few meters.
"No gifts this year," Armstrong said
after the stage.
During a ceremonial lap on the
Champs-Elys Dees, Kloden, when asked whether he would be
able to dethrone Armstrong at a future Tour, chuckled
sheepishly and said, "I'll try."
Unzue is eager to see the American
go.
"Of course. Why? For the cycling
ambiance, the sporting aspect, to see a more open and
spectacular Tour," Unzue said.
But others say they'll respect
Armstrong's decision about his future -- whatever it is --
and have been content to enjoy the Texan's history-making
moments.
"I like to see Lance just because he's
amazing to watch," said Christian Vandevelde, an American
with Liberty Seguros. "It has been cool to be a part of
it."
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All
rights reserved.
Check out the following
articles
Two
positive tests at Tour de France
|
2005 Tour De La MeC
Local Club Member To Participate
In DC Tour
