Two years ago, as he struggled to recover from testicular cancer, few would have given Lance Armstrong any chance of being at the start of this Tour de France - or any other. But yesterday, the Texan continued his incredible comeback by winning the 34-mile time trial stage here in convincing style. He now has a serious option on a prize that seems to verge on fantasy for a man who has been through cancer surgery and chemotherapy: victory in the Tour.
Armstrong's victory in the prologue time trial made him one of the favourites for the stage through the woods and cornfields around the Moselle river. However, no one expected him to open up the margins he carved out yesterday.
The world time-trial champion, Abraham Olano of Spain, was left trailing two minutes 22 seconds behind. He started two minutes ahead of Armstrong, who rubbed in his superiority with 21 miles covered, by catching up with the Basque shortly after he had misjudged a corner and taken a somersault over a hay bale.
The only rider to finish on anything approaching level pegging with Armstrong was the Swiss Alex Zulle, who restricted his losses to 58 seconds. But his Tour effectively ended when he fell last Monday as the Tour crossed a tidal causeway in the Vendee; he lost six minutes then and is now more than seven minutes behind Armstrong.
Trouble also befell the Frenchman Richard Virenque, who ran into a traffic jam as vehicles accompanying a rider ahead of him were blocked by the crowds. Armstrong also came close to disaster, when a fan played chicken in front of him early in the stage, jumping out of his way at the last minute.
This was small beer, however, compared to the fate that befell Armstrong's fellow American Bobby Julich, who flew off the road on a descent where speeds touched 60 mph, and ended up in a motionless heap on the verge. He was taken to hospital suffering from severe bruising to his ribs. There were shades of Chris Boardman's 1995 prologue crash. Before Armstrong's Sunday spectacular, the weekend had belonged to Mario Cipollini; his victory on Saturday made him the first rider to take four Tour stages in a row since 1930, and gave him the Italian record of 13 stage wins.
Yesterday, Cipollini made a cameo appearance at the end of the stage with the yellow jersey wearer Jaan Kirsipuu, after it had become clear that Armstrong was going to win and relieve the Estonian of the race-leader's jersey, which he had worn for six days.
Armstrong was supported yesterday by his pregnant wife Kristin and their white terrier Boone, but it was the terrier who received a farewell kiss. On yesterday's evidence, dog saliva is set to become the Tour's new miracle drug.
