Translated material
Catch-up leader
Armstrong can win the Tour without a stage win
At the 16th stage of the prestigious Tour de France multi-day cycling race, its six-time winner and current overall leader, American Lance Armstrong, again failed to achieve his secondary goal at the 2005 Great Loop and finish first. Iron Lance, the strongest rider in the general classification, is unlikely to lose the yellow jersey to his competitors in the remaining days, but he really wants to win at least one stage. So far it hasn't worked out. The 181 km distance between the cities of Morans and Pau was completed the fastest by Spaniard Oscar Pereiro.At the 109th kilometer of the route, the participants had to overcome another peak of the highest category of difficulty. The first to conquer it was the Australian Cadel Evans, who was in the breakaway group, who, like all his fellow countrymen participating in the Tour, went to the start wearing a mourning bandage in connection with the death of his compatriot Amy Gillette as a result of a traffic accident in Germany.
Five minutes behind the rider from the Green Continent, the most serious struggle in the elite group was unfolding. Alexander Vinokurov from the T-Mobile team was on the rise again. Alas, in the German cycling group they are trying to use the Kazakhstani only as a rider who can simply pull the peloton in which Armstrong is located. Alexander can’t expect any help from his teammates. And it would be illogical if suddenly in the German “stable” the role of first violin was humbly given to a titled and skilled, but still a legionnaire.
Vinokurov's escape did not last long. Armstrong, who had the German Jan Ullrich constantly next to him for the third stage in a row, caught the Kazakhstani in the middle of the climb. Although Ullrich is by no means the American's closest pursuer in the overall standings, Lance has his eye on Ullrich more than second-place Ivan Basso. Armstrong has had an excellent relationship with the Italian for the second year now - they actually help each other at the most difficult stages and ride together. But the rivalry with the leader of T-Mobile is of the most fundamental importance for Lance - after all, these are the two most iconic and highest-paid figures in world cycling. According to some reports, Ulrich's monthly salary is about 300 thousand dollars, while Armstrong extracted a guaranteed annual contract of 6 million dollars from sponsors.
There is already talk in the peloton that starting next season, second place on the payroll will be taken by Basso, to whom the Danish team CSC, sponsored by US investors, is ready to offer $2 million per season. At the same time, according to analysts, Ullrich's income will fall. After all, his ambitions in competition with the famous American this season are not supported by anything. In head-to-head duels at mountain stages, the German was invariably weaker than Armstrong.
Yesterday, all three of the elite riders mentioned finished in the same time. In the general classification, Basso is still 2 minutes behind the American. 46 sec. In third position is the Dane Mikael Rasmussen, who loses 3 minutes to the leader. 9 sec. Well, as for Ullrich, he must already admit his next defeat - it is unrealistic to win back almost six minutes of deficit in the remaining stages in Saturday's time trial race.
Yesterday another event took place in the world of cycling, in no way inferior in importance to the French Tour. The Czech Ondrej Sosenka broke the world record in the one-hour race at the Moscow cycling track in Krylatskoye, covering 49 km 700 m alone. The Czech surpassed the previous achievement of the Briton Chris Boardman, set in 2000 in Manchester, by 259 meters. True, the dethroned Briton also has a one-hour ride of 56.375 km in 1996, but this result is not listed in the register of records of the International Cycling Union, since it was established using a two-wheeled vehicle of an unusual design with increased aerodynamic properties.
It should be noted that records in an hour race are prepared by athletes in advance. They declare their intention to storm the previous achievement to the national federation, which is in charge of the cycling track used to set the record, and, having received the appropriate permission, arrive at the battle site with time and distance. Usually such events are preceded by a loud advertising campaign, but Sosenka’s arrival in Moscow and the record itself went almost unnoticed.