PARIS — In the gloom, mist and rain of the early afternoon, Lance Armstrong's mood seemed as bright as the jersey he was wearing.

As Armstrong rode toward Paris in the ceremonial final stage of the Tour de France, something like a Sunday drive, he shook hands with rivals, photographers on motorcycles and officials of other teams. He took sips of champagne and touched glasses with his team director, Johan Bruyneel, driving the Discovery Channel car.

Three hours later, the sun had come out on the man a French newspaper once called "The Sun King," for ruling over a race whose champion wears yellow. But in the warm afternoon glow of the Champs-Elysées, Armstrong's emotions no longer seemed those of a man celebrating the end he wanted, on top of the Tour de France for an unprecedented seventh straight year.

He crossed the finish line yesterday with a blank expression and no gesture to acknowledge the moment. A half-hour later, in speaking to the crowd from the victory stand, Armstrong delivered a defense of his sport in a parting shot that rang out as both defiant and embittered.

"The last thing I'll say to the people that don't believe in cycling, the cynics, the skeptics, I'm sorry for you," Armstrong said. "I'm sorry you can't dream big, and I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles.

"This is a great sporting event, and you should stand around and believe, and you should believe in these people. I'm a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live, and there are no secrets. This is a hard sporting event, and hard work wins it. So vive le Tour — forever."

Armstrong's words clearly were meant as a tongue-lashing to everyone who has focused on cycling's well-documented problems with doping, which turned the 1998 Tour de France into a scandal from which one-third of the teams either withdrew or were expelled for illegal drug use.

That cloud hung over the race when Armstrong won his first Tour a year later, and it has not dissipated. Allegations that Armstrong has used drugs, made by people who worked with him and a cyclist who once rode with him, have rained on his victory parade ever since.

They began in 1999, when Armstrong tested positive for a banned corticosteroid but was cleared because he had a medical authorization to use it as treatment for saddle sores. He never has tested positive since.

Such a final attack on his detractors is consistent with the way he has handled past accusations of doping and insinuations that it took more than a miracle for a man who had overcome nearly fatal cancer to win the Tour once, let alone seven times.

Greatest streaks in sports


Lance Armstrong, above, has seven consecutive Tour de France titles, something no other cyclist has achieved. It ranks with other impressive record-setting streaks by individual athletes:

Joe DiMaggio — Baseball great hit in 56 straight games in 1941.

Al Oerter — U.S. discus thrower won gold medals in four straight Olympics (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968).

Martina Navratilova — Won at least one tennis title per year for 21 years.

Cal Ripken — Baltimore Orioles' Iron Man played in 2,632 straight baseball games.

Dan Marino — Miami Dolphins quarterback had 13 seasons in a row in which he passed for 3,000 or more yards.

John Wooden — Hall of Fame coach led UCLA basketball team to seven consecutive national titles between 1967 and 1973.

Richard Petty — Won 10 straight NASCAR races in 1967.

Gannett News Service

He won the seventh with his second-smallest margin, 4 minutes, 40 seconds, with CSC team rider Ivan Basso of Italy second and T-Mobile's Jan Ullrich of Germany third. Armstrong covered the 2,239 miles at an average speed of 25.8 mph, winning one individual stage and the team time trial.

Armstrong led for the last 12 days, which included the big mountain stages. He never was really threatened, leaving the feeling he could win again if he were not committed to retirement at age 33.

"You wait for the battles in the mountains, watching guys at their limits testing each other," said Outdoor Life Network commentator Frankie Andreu, an Armstrong teammate in the 1999 and 2000 Tours. "This year, Lance never got tested, never looked like he was suffering."

Armstrong needed to take his right foot off the pedal to avoid going down after skidding into three teammates who slipped on the wet pavement as the riders crossed the Seine River near Paris. The conditions made race organizers stop the clock before the main group of riders, including Armstrong, began their eight circuits of the Champs-Elysées.

T-Mobile's Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, who had started the race as one of the favorites, sprinted to a win in the final stage. Thor Hushovd of Norway clinched the green jersey for best overall sprinter, and Denmark's Mickael Rasmussen won the red-and-white polka-dot jersey as best climber. Armstrong's Discovery teammate Yaroslav Popovych of Ukraine took the white jersey as best rider under age 25.

Before the Tour, Armstrong said he wanted to leave the impression "for my own good" of being able to win another Tour if he wanted. After apparently underscoring that Saturday by winning the individual time trial, he said there was no way to tell when age might catch up to him.

The truth is, he and Bruyneel had developed a formula for winning the Tour that seemed simple enough to work a couple more years. "One attack and two good time trials," Armstrong said.

Reducing three weeks of racing to such calculations left Armstrong open to confounding criticism he lacked panache or style.

"If you attack too much and win too many stages, they say you are arrogant and hogging all the victories," he said. "If you don't attack enough, they stick a microphone in someone's face and the guy says, 'He has no panache. He hasn't won.'

"Seven Tours gives or takes panache."