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| Monday, July 30 |
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| How many more Tours will Lance conquer? Associated Press | |||
Four, five, six Tour de France titles. How many can Lance
Armstrong win?
"As long as he's healthy and on his game, I don't think anyone
can beat him," Sean Petty, director of athletic performance at USA
Cycling, said Monday, the day after Armstrong won his third
straight championship.
Eddy Merckx of Belgium, who won four of his five in a row, put
it even stronger: "He can rewrite the history books."
"Nobody can beat him. He can win six, seven Tours de France. He
can win as many Tours as he wants," he told The New York Times.
"Simply unbeatable" was how rival Jan Ullrich described
Armstrong when the German conceded defeat with one week remaining.
Tour de France archivist Jacques Augendre said Armstrong could
break the record of five titles held by Merckx, Miguel Indurain,
Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil. Indurain won five straight.
"He is perfectly in control and he's better prepared than his
rivals," Augendre said. "I think he will win more. I wouldn't be
surprised if he broke the record."
Armstrong, an Austin, Texas, resident who turns 30 in September,
shows no signs of slowing nearly five years after being diagnosed
with testicular cancer.
For the immediate future, Armstrong is returning to the United
States. He's booked on the "Late Show" with David Letterman on
Wednesday. That night, he's also throwing out the first pitch at
Yankee Stadium.
Armstrong's dominance, especially after his comeback from
cancer, has raised talk in Europe that he might use
performance-enhancing drugs. But he has never tested positive for a
banned substance and emphatically denies the accusations.
During the Tour, he defended his relationship with an Italian
physician, Michele Ferrari, who has been linked to drug use in
sports.
That relationship also was questioned by Greg LeMond, the
three-time Tour champion and, before Armstrong, the last American
winner.
"When Lance won the prologue to the 1999 Tour I was close to
tears, but when I heard he was working with Michele Ferrari I was
devastated," LeMond told the Guardian, a London newspaper.
"In the light of Lance's relationship with Ferrari, I just
don't want to comment on this year's Tour," LeMond was quoted as
saying. "This is not sour grapes. I'm just disappointed in
Lance."
LeMond couldn't be reached for comment, but his agent, Mary
Haigh, confirmed the quotes were accurate.
Armstrong usually spends part of the winter at his home in
Austin. By early next year he'll be back to his second home in
Nice, France, and another year of preparing for the Tour.
While many top riders race in Europe through the spring and
early summer, Armstrong logs practice miles over French roads where
the Tour will be held.
"We have the template of how to prepare for this race, and we
won't change it," Armstrong said last weekend.
He's joined by U.S. Postal Service team director Johan Bruyneel
and sometimes a few Postal teammates or Chris Carmichael, his
personal coach. The course changes annually, so they begin mapping
a strategy up to eight months early.
They'll ride the roads, charting Armstrong's heart rate and
other biomedical data. Then they'll plot the best places to attack
during decisive stages that will determine the Tour's overall
champion.
Petty calls those training sessions "reconnaissance missions."
"He develops a great knowledge of the course, such as where
it's going to be hard and how he's going to ride," Petty said.
"He also knows his optimal heart rate, cadence and speed. He knows
where he can push it on those climbs."
That knowledge was evident during the signature moment of this
year's Tour. Armstrong glanced back at his main challenger,
Ullrich, at the base of L'Alpe d'Huez and then left him far behind.
"It takes so much to win the Tour. Being a great athlete is
first thing," Petty said. "For the time trials and the climbing,
you've got to be super strong and bold.
"There's also luck and good health, avoiding crashes. So many
things need to go right, but unless someone shows Lance is
vulnerable, there's no question he could win two or three more."
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ALSO SEE Easy Rider: Armstrong wins third straight Tour de France Armstrong closing in on five-year milestone with cancer Final Tour de France results Tour de France: Day-by-day Ratto: Tour de Truth AUDIO/VIDEO   Hard work and determination translate to a third straight Tour de France title for Lance Armstrong (Courtesy: OLN).wav: 192 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |
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