http://www.letour.fr/2005/TDF/LIVE/us/-10000/r1_avantcourse.html
Official link to the tour site.
Will anyone challenge Lance in his quest for another title??
Official link to the tour site.
How will this tour look? Any insight from the riders here?Armstrong: Mountains will be key to win
The Canadian Press
6/28/2005 9:00:26 AM
With his usual dedication, the American has reconnoitered all the crucial mountain climbs for the upcoming Tour de France - and now feels ready to make a prediction.
"This year, the Tour will be won in the mountains," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Armstrong is aiming for his seventh straight crown in the gruelling three-week trek around France. As in previous years when he left rivals behind on mountain climbs, Armstrong is looking to victory in the Alps, which this year come in Week 2, and in the Pyrenees a few days later.
The 33-year-old Texan spoke to the AP by telephone Monday night after what he called the last long training ride of his career - six hours on roads around Nice in the south of France. He was joined by Axel Merckx, son of Belgian cycling legend Eddy Merckx.
The elder Merckx and three other riders won five Tours - a record Armstrong matched in 2003 and then surpassed with his sixth victory last year.
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"I feel strong on the bike," said Armstrong, adding that he has shed 3.3 pounds since placing fourth in the Dauphine Libere race in France two weeks ago.
"I feel a lot better than I did in the Dauphine. I'm recovering well."
Armstrong said he travelled to the Alps after the Dauphine to ride the climbs there and found them to be "much harder than I expected" - as difficult as the Pyrenean stages that will follow.
The last of the three Alpine stages, from Briancon to Digne-les-Bains, could be particularly tricky, he said.
"There are no big climbs but it's going to be a hard day. There will be some surprises for a lot of people, especially if it is very hot," he said.
A heat wave has baked France in recent days. Armstrong said he is already taking care not to dehydrate.
"You've got to think about one word: water, water, water," he said.
He also downplayed slight injuries suffered when he crashed at low speed during a training ride last week. He expects his black eye will have gone before his scheduled pre-Tour news conference Thursday.
"Everything is OK," he said.
The race starts Saturday, with a time trial in the west of France where riders go out individually against the clock for 19 kilometres. There is a second individual time trial, over 55.5 kilometres, the day before the Tour finishes on July 24 with a traditional ride into Paris.
Armstrong, a time-trial expert, was checking out the longer course, in Saint-Etienne in central France, on Tuesday.
He said it was "very tough and technical" but doesn't expect the final time trial to determine the Tour outcome because the eventual winner should, by then, have left rivals trailing in the mountains.
Spanish rider Joseba Beloki, a former runner-up to Armstrong who is making his Tour comeback after a horrifying crash in the 2003 race, says that only if the Texan shows uncharacteristic weakness will rivals get a chance to finally unseat the defending champion.
"To have any possibility of winning against Armstrong, Armstrong himself has to have a bad day," he told the AP in a phone interview from Spain.
"If Armstrong weakens one day with a minimal loss of time, I don't think it'll be enough," added Beloki, who was second in 2002 and third in 2000 and '01. "Armstrong would have to have real difficulties on at least one day, and would have to lose lots of time."
Will anyone challenge Lance in his quest for another title??