Cycling Tour de FranceIn the end the triumphal march did not go totally to plan for Lance Armstrong. Yesterday, in honour of the Tour's centenary, he and his US Postal Service team-mates dressed up in what they described as "retro" outfits, a sort of battleship grey rather than their usual dark blue. It earned them a £3,100 fine for "equipment that did not conform with the rules".
Given all that had gone wrong for Armstrong en route to his narrow victory over Jan Ullrich, and his accession to the elite group who have won five Tours de France, that was a mere bagatelle, as was the fact that yesterday he finished 112th, dropping 15 seconds to Jan Ullrich. All that mattered was the result.
"I have won and survived this Tour," said Armstrong. "I have dodged a lot of bullets. This was absolutely the most difficult year for many reasons." He also admitted: "Physically I have not been super; tactically I have made some bad mistakes. My level this year was not acceptable."
On Saturday, in the deluge in Nantes, as Armstrong pulled on the yellow jersey after ensuring victory primarily by staying upright on roads which were barely fit for racing, the five-time Tour winner Bernard Hinault said to him: "Welcome to the club."
Less than seven years after being close to death with testicular cancer Armstrong has equalled Hinault, the late Jacques Anquetil, his close friend Eddy Merckx and the genial Miguel Indurain in winning five Tours, and has followed "Big Mig" in taking five in a row. He will, he says, return next year to bid for the absolute record: a sixth Tour. "I won't come back to take second, but to return to the level I had in the first four victories."
The denouement on Saturday was, compared to the suspense of the preceding 13 days, a washout. At the end of the hottest Tour since 1990, a rainstorm that closed Nantes airport turned the roads in the great port into a skating rink. It fell to Ullrich, one minute five seconds behind that morning, to set the pace, in the hope that Armstrong would panic and come a cropper, but it was the German who fell.
His front wheel skittered as he rode into a roundabout, he compensated momentarily and his back wheel flew from under him, sending him sliding across the sodden road in a shower of sparks as his pedal scraped the tarmac. His challenge to Armstrong left him down among the plastic-covered straw bales in the gutter.
The crash ended the contest, and ensured the stage win for Britain's David Millar: both men concluded it was better to stay upright and in one piece than fight any more.
"With a minute's advantage, it wasn't my responsibility to take risks," said Armstrong. "The team reminded me, 'He's the one who has to win'. At times both my wheels were sliding; it was a reminder that the difference between staying up and going down is very fine."
As he had all through the Tour - at Gap, where he was two metres behind Joseba Beloki as he fell, at Luz Ardiden, where the crash cracked his frame, but it held up - he rode his luck. "I'd rather be lucky than good," he concluded. It could be argued that he made his own luck, in twice carefully going over the time-trial course, where Ullrich merely watched a video.
It was not the perfect, suspense-filled shoot-out it might have been, but it was apposite: the centenary Tour will be remembered as the Tour of chutes: Armstrong's excursion into a field in the Alps; Beloki splattered on the melting tarmac near Gap; Armstrong again, tangled up in a fan's freebie bag at the foot of the Luz Ardiden climb; the field in one great heap at the finish line in Meaux on day one.
There was one issue remaining to be settled yesterday: the green points jersey, where Baden Cooke began the day just two points behind last year's winner, his fellow Australian Robbie McEwen.
The sprinters tried their hardest to end the Tour with one final pile-up, jostling and barging as they sped across the Place de la Concorde, and McEwen and Cooke could not have been closer as they crossed the line, their shoulders entwined like The Lovers of the Pont Neuf, but on two wheels and at 45mph.
Cooke's front wheel was fractionally ahead, to ensure he snatched back the green jersey, but both were just behind the surprise stage winner, Jean-Patrick Nazon.
Armstrong has overcome advanced cancer, a police investigation, and drug allegations to join the nonpareils of his sport. Cycling's great survivor has triumphed in sport's great survivor.
STAGE 20 (Ville d'Avray-Paris, 152km): Leading placings: 1 J-P Nazon (Fra) Jean Delatour in 3hr 38min 49sec, 2 B Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com, 3 R McEwen (Aus) Lotto, 4 Paolini (Ita) Quick Step Davitamon, 5 T Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole, 6 S O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole, 7 E Zabel (Ger) Telekom, 8 R Vainsteins (Lat) Caldirola - So.Di, 9 G Glomser (Aut) Saeco, 10 Damien Nazon (Fra) Brioches la Boulangere, all same time.
Final overall standings: 1 L Armstrong (US) US Postal 83hr 41min 12sec, 2 J Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi at 1min 01sec, 3 A Vinokourov (Kaz) Telekom 4:14, 4 T Hamilton (US) Team CSC 6:17, 5 H Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 6:51, 6 I Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 7:06, 7 I Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 10:12, 8 C Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 12:28, 9 C Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 18:49, 10 F Mancebo (Spa) Ibancesto.com 19:15. Points (green jersey): 1 Cooke 216 points, 2 McEwen 214, 3. Zabel 188. King of the Mountain (polka-dot jersey): 1 Virenque 324, 2 Dufaux 187, 3 Armstrong 168. Team: 1 Team CSC 248:18:18, 2 Ibanesto.com 21:46, 3 Euskaltel 44:59. Youth (under-25) (white jersey): 1 Menchov 84:00:56, 2 Astarloza 2:29, 3 Mercado 1:02:48.
