Tour de France- Lance Armstrong

[Da Coach]

Lance Armstrong showed incredible strength and endurance and stayed with the best riders in the world in today's Stage 20 which included the toughest mountain climb of the Tour de France. Lance finished in 5th place in the stage, and remains in 3rd place overall. He widened his lead over the 4th place rider, and is now essentially guaranteed 3rd place in the Tour. Tomorrow's final stage is a ride into Paris that won't afford a chance for any significant gains by the riders who trail. Alberto Contador of Spain, Lance's teammate, remains the overall leader and will win his second TDF tomorrow.
If anyone has a chance to watch some of the replays of today's stage on the Versus network, I recommend it. It was estimated that there were close to 1 million spectators along the route up Mont Ventoux. It was incredible to watch.
Current standings:

http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/LIVE/us/2000/classement/index.html

Lance Armstrong has said he will return to race next year at the age of 38, and this week has announced he will start up his own team sponsored by Radio Shack.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/tdf2009/news/story?id=4349772

[SFP]

It's amazing what these endurance athletes do and more amazing that Lance is still competing at the level he is after retiring for 3.5 years and let's not even mention his age where your prime is between 28-33! It would take a person in decent biking shape around 3 hours on a granny gear to get up Mt Ventoux and these guys did it in 45 minutes. I ride up this hill that would probably be a Category 3 and I suffer. I can't imagine biking in a race up a HC which is an out of category climb. As Lance said, "Not bad for an old fart."

[Da Coach]

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador says he never admired Lance Armstrong. Lance has a few words for Contador, too.-

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/I-never-had-great-admiration-for-Lance--Contador/495230

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Alberto-Contador_-Lance-Armstrong-trade-barbs-after-Tour-51861742.html

[SFP]

Tour de France winner Alberto Contador says he never admired Lance Armstrong. Lance has a few words for Contador, too.-

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/I-never-had-great-admiration-for-Lance--Contador/495230

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Alberto-Contador_-Lance-Armstrong-trade-barbs-after-Tour-51861742.html

There has been some real mud slinging which should make for a drama filled Tour next year. The Spanish press is siding with their boy pretty heavily while our blogs and fan sites are pounding Contador. It will be interesting to see who Contador can get to be on his team next year. Lance is creating a pretty good team for next year with Radio Shack as their main sponsor.