Seven One Word Events in Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France The “Fake”
The “Fake”.
In a bike race, the people who often win are protected for most of the stage by their teammates. These teammates ride in front of their leader, saving as much as 20% of the protected rider’s effort in the wind. They bring bottles from the team car and chase down attacks by rivals on the course. On mountain stages, a team might send their riders to the front of the group to set ‘tempo’. In other words, teammates will sacrifice themselves at the front, driving a hard enough pace to keep other riders from trying to slip away. Once they are spent, the rider will slip behind and end up finishing well back for the day, their job done.
In stage 10 of the 2001 Tour, the worker bees on the teams were going to have their work cut out for them. The stage had several climbs that finished with a climb up the famous Alpe d’Huez. In an earlier stage that was not nearly as hilly, Lance’s teammates were unable to stay with him and the Texan was isolated quickly on a climb. Since the hills were not as severe, Lance survived with no time lost to his rivals. Before stage 10, the talk was whether it would happen again and whether Lance would lose time. As the stage progressed, TV viewers and team directors were witnessing a Lance Armstrong they had never seen previously. Instead of riding at the front of the diminishing pack of riders, Lance was near the back floundering. Since the team directors had TV’s in their cars, they were all seeing the same thing as viewers at home. “What was wrong with Lance”? Is his defense of the Tour de France over on the first major mountain stage?
The rival Telekom team of Jan Ulllrich saw an opportunity and took it. The German team sent all their riders to the front and rode a hard tempo through the first three climbs. This brutal pace thinned their own team members, but also thinned out the number of riders in the pack. Armstrong seemed to hang on, if only barely. One TV close up (from a motorcycle for the broadcaster) showed Lance shaking his head in apparent defeat. Telekom had expended a lot of energy and riders keeping the pace hard. Now even Ullrich was showing the signs as he rode with his team at the front of the group. When the riders reached the foot of the mighty Alpe d’Huez though, another Lance Armstrong appeared. Very quickly, the Texan moved to the front of the group and quickly sped away. Ullrich had nothing left and lost 2 minutes to Lance by the finish. Lance chalked up another stage win and took time out of his chief rival. The trick had worked. Thanks to modern technology, everyone saw the acting job, and many were tricked. Later, Rudy Pevenage, the director Ullrichs Telekom team said “When we saw the way Armstrong attacked we lost all our morale”.
This stage also is the source of the last of my seven on word events.. tomorrow.
