John Rees

The Tour de France is starting July 3 with the prologue in Rotterdam.  Once again, Lance Armstrong will be joining 197 other riders in the 3 week stage race circling France, with forays into the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.
Lance has already won the tour 7 times, and managed to finish on the podium in 2009 after 3 years away from the sport.  How will he do this year?  We will have to wait until July 25 to know for certain.

As I was pondering Armstrong’s astonishing string of 7 consecutive victories, I began to see key events that could be summed up with one word.  Over the next 7 days, I will post a key even in 7 of Lance’s previous tours that played a significant role in the outcome.

Here is the first::

The ‘Slime’

In 1999, Stage 2 of the Tour passed over a causeway called the Passage du Gois, a roadway that can only be navigated for about 4 hours during low tide.  The road is cobbled and remains wet and slimy even after the sea has temporarily revealed the surface.  Lance and his team, aware of the dangers of this section of the stage, managed to get to the front of the peleton as the riders approached.  As expected, there was a large crash on the cobbles, creating a large pile up and trapping many key riders.  At the front, Lance and his captain, George Hincapie, along with other riders such as Mario Cippolini, took full advantage of the carnage, working together to increase the gap.

Stuck in the pile up was Swiss rider, Alex Zulle, one of the riders expected to contend for the overall.  The unfortunate Zulle lost 6 minutes to Armstrong on this stage alone.  At the end of the tour, the Banesto rider finished in second place, seven and a half minutes behind the Texan.  Would Zulle have used different tactics on other stages had he not been trapped on the slippery cobbles?  We will never know, but the stage demonstrated the advantage of tactics and planning as Armstrong’s postal team were aware of the dangers of this section, and successfully kept their key rider out of trouble.