It sure is an interesting Tour this year. If you don’t know, Lance Armstrong has been away from professional cycling for years. Before he “retired,” he won seven Tour de France championships.
It’s an amazing number. The number is so amazing that people whisper about performance-enhancing drugs.
While he was away, Alberto Contador also won the race. (By the way, how awesome a name is Alberto Contador?)
Now these two men are on the same cycling team. A cycling team usually races in support of one team leader. No one can go through a multi-stage race like the Tour de France by himself.
So the team, Astana, has had to listen while everyone in the world following this race speculates about who is the true championship contender—Lance or Alberto?
Contador proved, about two stages back, that he is a masterful mountain rider. Even Lance admitted that Alberto appeared to be the better, stronger rider.
During today’s stage though, Armstrong came back after getting dropped from the leaders’ riding group. He fought his way back up a very strenuous climb to get back even with the leading riders. It was impressive.
I’m purely guessing, but I don’t think Armstrong will be a poor teammate and try for Contador’s first place standing. (Armstrong is currently in second.)
But Lance is sure to position himself to take advantage of anything and everything. Alberto can have a flat tire at a crucial point. He may crash, get injured, become too fatigued, etc.
It’s a long race, and we’ve just entered the Alps. Armstrong knows now that he can still vie for the overall win. Everyone knows that he wants this badly, but he is also a professional. I don’t think he’ll do anything dishonorable.
Next year though, he’ll probably be on a different team. He’ll train like a mad man to take it to these kids.
As interesting as this year is, I’m already looking forward to the next.
Tags: Uncategorized by Ms. SP
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