Tour de France
Impressive start for Armstrong

By Bonnie DeSimone
Chicago Tribune

DOUG PENSINGER / GETTY IMAGES Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland savors the yellow jersey after winning the Tour prologue on Saturday.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Related stories Tour snapshot: Has love distracted Lance? Other links More Tour de France news Route map

LIEGE, Belgium — The first few miles of the Tour de France were dicey enough, requiring tight turns on narrow city streets. Then came wind gusts strong enough to alter a rider's trajectory, plus the occasional sprinkle to make the road surface slick.

It was a day for gamblers who know what they're doing, and one of the great risk-takers in all of sports played a better hand than almost anyone.

Lance Armstrong opened his bid for a record sixth Tour de France victory with a second-place finish in yesterday's 3.8-mile prologue, two seconds behind Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara.

Armstrong said his short but sweet day of racing should help quell the doubts raised by a subpar performance in his last time trial, the grueling climb up Mont Ventoux in last month's Dauphine Libere race through the Alps. Two of his chief rivals, Phonak team leader Tyler Hamilton and Iban Mayo of Spain's Euskaltel team, beat him by significant margins that day.

"For all the people who said, 'I don't know about Lance Armstrong,' you know, I was also one of those people," an elated Armstrong said after the prologue.

"I had serious doubts the night of Mont Ventoux. ... I was also at home thinking, 'What happened?' So I don't blame anyone for that."

U.S. Postal Service director Johan Bruyneel said he did not share those doubts.

"Today Lance was very motivated and he wanted to show everybody that what (they) were saying wasn't really the truth," Bruyneel said. "For his morale, it's very good he did this performance. "

Prologue Leaders Defending champ Lance Armstrong posted a good performance in yesterday's 3.8-mile prologue, finishing second. Leaders 1. Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland, Fassa Bortolo, 6:50 2. Lance Armstrong, United States, U.S. Postal Servive, 2 seconds behind 3. Jose Ivan Gutierrez, Spain, Illes Balears-B. Santander, 8 seconds behind<

Two other U.S. riders, Armstrong's teammate George Hincapie and CSC's Bobby Julich, finished in the top 10. Germany's Jan Ullrich was 16th, 17 seconds back.

That margin isn't significant at the start of a three-week race, and Armstrong knows better than to underestimate the man who came within a minute of beating him last year and looks as trim and prepared as ever.

"Jan will be super, trust me," Armstrong said.

"It's disappointing to lose the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) by a couple seconds, but that's the way it goes. The more important thing is, how did you feel, and I was very comfortable."

Disaster befell one Tour rider before the race began. Australia's Matthew White barreled into a spectator while warming up on the course yesterday morning, crashed and broke his collarbone.

White's Cofidis team made an emergency call to the rider with the best chance of making the afternoon start — Belgian Peter Farazijn.

The 35-year-old Farazijn, who was eating lunch when he got the call, performed admirably under the circumstances, finishing 185th of 188 riders.

Armstrong is likely to drop in the overall standings over the next three days. Today and tomorrow are sprint stages, and Tuesday's course, which crosses the border into France, includes portions of the jarring, hazardous cobblestone stretches that gave the Paris-Roubaix race its nickname, "Hell of the North."

U.S. Postal's goal will be to keep its leader safe and sheltered until Wednesday's team time trial, where Armstrong and his minions will be among the favorites.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More Tour de France headlines...