Okay, in this article is a recap of the last few legs of the Tour de France, namely of Lance Armstrong’s finishes.
But what has completely stumped me is the following:
How in the world can you have the fastest climb in history for a stage, but not win that stage?!? Are they timing something entirely different, such as from the bottom of the mountain to the top, which doesn’t fully encompass the stage? If so, why didn’t they mention that in the article?
I think that “the climb to the summit” was just a subportion of the overall stage. Another article I had some figures like the overall stage being either 21 miles and an overall altitude change of 1900+ metres.
The climb up Mt. Ventoux comes at the very end of that day’s stage, which is over 130 miles long.
As for why they didn’t mention it, I suppose they thought that you’d figure it out from the context, or that anyone who cared would know that 13 miles and 1 hour ain’t spit in the Tour de France.
Going into the final 13 mile climb up Mt. Ventoux Lance was about 8th in a pack of riders about 5 minutes back from the lead pack of 6.
As the lead pack started to climb the mountain several riders dropped out unable to maintain the pace.
Right after starting up the long climb Joseba Beloki (2nd in the standing for the yellow jersey) attacked and passed Lance.
Lance immediately put the hammer down passed Beloki and dropped him like a bad habit.
Riding all by himself he climbed the mountain. Faster and faster, he climbed picking off all the rider between him and the front of the pack. At the finish, Lance was third behind Vrinque and Botcharov. Lance was 2:20 behind Vrinque who rode the ride of his life to hang on and win the stage. Lance wound up increasing his lead over Beloki by and additional 1:55.
Lance’s lead is now 4:21.
Also, something else that’s interesting to note is this. (And bear in mind I myself rode in 2 amateur Tours de France back when there was still an amateur/pro divide in Road Cycling) and it is this… in the history of the Tour de France, over 89 editions, the average height of the winner is 5’9" in height. That is, not to short, not to tall.
Most people outside of the sport aren’t aware that Tour de France style racing is far closer to motorsport than it is to marathon running. It’s a mixture of both obviously, but you can safely assume that every rider in the peloton is capable of doing 220klms plus per day at high speed. The variances then come into such motor racing physics as power to weight ratios, and the quality of your teammates to chase down and disrupt other attacks and breaks in the field.
I first met Lance Armstrong in his first year as a pro in 1991 and he was amazingly strong on the flat. However, he was also a VERY well built young man. He could easily have been an athlete in a number of other sports too. Oddly enough, this natural bulk actually worked against him in the Alps. You see, the power to weight ratios worked against him there. As much as Lance tred, he could never get his body fat ratio down low enough to be super duper competitive on all of the climbs every day. His natural aerobic strength carried him for one or two days but then, after that, the really lean guys would just start to float away that little bit easier.
They say that to win the Tour, you have to be a superstar at all three disciplines in cycling - namely,
(1) You have to be a superb racer at the strategic level (a great team helps immensely here),
(2) You have to be a great climber. Power to weight ratio means everything here. It’s quite common to see riders aim for a body fat percentage of less than 6% or lower.
(3) You have to be a magnificent time triallist. In every Tour, there are at least 2 individual time trial stages where you race against the clock and not your other riders. This discipline is the reat leveller in the sport. In last year’s final time trial, Lance averaged 49.4 kph on the open undulating road. This years first time trial was one by Botero at an average of 50.8 kph. These are extraordinary speeds folks. Remember, the open road includes small hills and rises etc. You can safely assume these guys are hovering close to 60kph on the flat. It’s an amazing display of human horsepower.
For those of you who aren’t aware, Mont Vonteoux is a legendary climb in the Tour de France - surpassed only by l’Alpe du Huez. The worst part about the climb is that it’s an extinct volcano. Anyway you attack it, you approach it from the flat from a long distance away. It’s psychologically incredibly imposing and it’s famous in cycling circles for eing the supreme test of climbing ability.
All of the Tour’s great climbs have official records for their ascent times. It’s an established sub genre in the sport a bit like records in Track and Field I guess.
The thing that’s interesting about Lance is that he shed so much weight during his cancer ordeal. He still hovers at 75kg, which historically is at the upper end of weight range of history’s great climbers. It shows just what an astonishing cardiovascualr system he has.
With the utmost respect, I would suggest that there are a few former greats in the sport from the past who might have equalled Lance’s statistics if they too had the knolwedge of diet and specific training methods which Lance has at his disposal nowadays.
Certainly, however, there can be no denying that L.A. is an absolute giant in the history of the sport. Especially when you consider that his first tour was in 1993, that’s an awful long time to come back and win your first tour 6 seasons later. It really is a credit to the guy.
He’s hoping to be the first to win 6 tours in a row. Have you any idea how hard that will be for him? Miguel Indurain came pretty close in 1996 - the whole world was cheering for him but the human body just plain gives out at some point. In 1996 Miguel’s resting heart rate was 28bpm - so he was obviously obscenely fit, but still, when the racing hit at it’s hardest, his squirt just wasn’t quite there. He still finished a very respectable 10th overall it should be noted, and he won the Olympic GOld Medal for the road time trial that year too so he was no slouch by any yardstick.
But that’s what Lance will be facing next year. There will riders working out how to emulate his training methods and they’ll gang up on him and hope that age is starting to take it’s toll.
One last thing to note too. In Road Racing, there’s one other thing that Lance hasn’t nailed though - we call it the Holy Trinity or The Triple Crown - namely, the Tour of Italy (di Giro d’Italia), le Tour de France, and the World Championship Road Race. Unlke the yellow jersey in the Tour, if you win the World Championship, you get to wear the Rainbow Jersey for the entire next season. LA has won the World title once before, but he has yet to give the Triple Crown a shake. Very few riders have nailed that one.
If Lance can do the big three tours the, Giro, Vuelta, Le Tour, he will join an extremely exclusive club.
These are ones to date.
Bernard Hinault (twice-absolutely incredible!)
Felis Gimondi
Jacques Anquetil
Eddy Merckx
Unfortunately the riders schedules mean that this feat may never be repeated again.