CyclingRevealed's First Impressions '05
Stage 1 - Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile, 19 km Individual Time Trial
Poetry in Motion
As Lance Armstrong bows out of his long and successful career, there was poetry in the manner that another American (the young Dave Zabriskie) should win the TT just 2 seconds in front of le patron Armstrong . Both riders put nearly one minute into the third placed rider with the rest of the field spread out behind them.
The pre-Tour media hype reached deafening levels and expert predictions from many sources were shown to be just so much hot air. Zabriskie should have been no surprise. He has already shown incredible TT talent that includes stage wins in last year's Vuelta and the recent Giro. Now his team CSC will focus on him holding the Yellow Jersey for the next few days. Their long term plan is to deliver Ivan Basso to Paris in Yellow.
Why everyone is showing surprise at Armstrong's TT ride demonstrates that for six years few people have understood the USPS (and now Discovery) team approach to the Tour. It started with Greg LeMond when he first introduced techniques borrowed from Corporate America. Armstrong and his team have elevated those early corporate introductions and in the process revolutionized the sport. In particular the TdF has been their number one objective. Strategy, planning, tactics, technology, nutrition, training and every other aspect has been placed under a magnifying glass and then adapted for maximum effect. Given Armstrong's undoubted genetic benefits, his obsession with the Tour and his highly sophisticated team set up, we have seen him dominate the race for six straight years.
Armstrong may have had a winless 2005, which included a terrible (by his own admission) TT in the Tour of Georgia, but July is another animal. Here we are at the end of Stage 1 and already he has over one minute on all of his main rivals. His obsession with the Tour is by no means diminished and he is that type of super-champion that hungers for victory. Only illness, an accident or by his own choosing will he fail to reach Paris in Yellow.
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