Armstrong got his ass handed to him... 2 minutes..?!

Lance in 5th . . . might be troubled times ahead.

looks like it, but then both sites (cycling news and the french one) have given very inconsistant updates...so I am not sure yet of the results

I've got the same :

Mayo in 55'51

Hamilton in 56'26

Sevilla 56'54

Then Mercado in 57'39 and Lance in 57'49.

I don't know about the Mayot jaune, Guttierez though.

Like last years TDf, it will be interesting to hear the Armstrong's camp excuses.

Brake rub, lost 15 lbs to dehydration, hip tendonitis due to improper shoe fit, etc...

I reiterate...

Go Jan! (just get rid of telekom's "awesome" race tactics!!!)

Seems to me that he said from the start of the Dauphine that his goal was to train/test/gauge his fitness/form and not to contest the overall! So are we going to fault him for not winning the stage/taking the overall? From my perspective, seems like good strategy! Looks like he headed up Ventoux, pushing the envelope just enough, but not too hard so that he met his performance expectations but an additional benefit is that now it seems to have planted these seeds of doubt in many people's minds

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you could think that...however losing 2' in a TT of 1h is HUGE...specially when you are Lance that you have never ever been that far in a TT very close to the TdF and that the winner is a potential winner of the TdF...

Not winning is ok. He would have lost 1('' everyone would have said 'it's early' etc... but 2'...I don't think so.

unless he was sick or had some mechanical issue or something, he is in trouble for the Tour

What's the french language site you use? The only one I know of is www.velo101.com and it's got nothing in terms of commentary compared to cyclingnews. Are there better ones out there?

hehehe...

makes the tour more interesting doesn´t it? ... i´d say lance will still win it, but it´s nice that my little flame of hope is not out yet... :-)

It´s going to be like every year... i´ll be pressing thumbs for jan... hoping... and then there is going to be the usual lance-gets-serious-and-kicks-everybody-day...

pleeeease proof me wrong this time!



Axel

Guys, guys lets just think here ... The Tour is not WON in June is it - Ask Jan - he knows it too!!

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For one who has no objective, nothing is relevant. (Confucius)
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Both Lance and Tyler said that the only stage that matter to them in the race was the stage today. So the fact that both Mayo and Hamilton stomped Lance, should worry him. Hopefully Tyler dethrones him in the Tour.

I'd love to see Phonak isolate Mayo in one of the three remaining stages. And get Sevilla the overall or atleast a stage.

Matt

naaah, this is hamilton's year, then jan and then lance duking it out for third with any of mayo/vinokourov/etc. -- course i could eat crow for that but lance is already doing that.

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Maybe Lance is playing them to make them think he is slow so he can stomp them at TdF??? (yeah right)

I really really doubt that Lance will take #6...I would bet big against it.

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

http://www.criterium.ledauphine.com/criterium04/index.php

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there

http://www.criterium.ledauphine.com/...4/direct.php?etape=4

A tour contender not riding all out on the most important time trial, not likely, but stranger things have happened. The other thing Lance has always said he wanted a victory most of all on Mt. Ventoux. I just don't think he was in form enough to win today...with that said I don't think he could beat Mayo now anyway. If anyone could, it probably would be Roberto Heras. THe lance loss is not a huge factor, but if struggles at all in the next couple of stages that will be an indication the tour will be an exciting one. Go Tyler!

i'd be more concerned about about hamilton's result than mayo's if i was armstrong. mayo seems to be placing somewhat greater emphasis on this race. in addition, even with the cap on losses for the ttt at the tdf, i would still expect euskatel to lose some significant time--enough to counter the gains mayo might make on alpe d'huez. i don't think mayo can hang with armstrong on the long tt. phonak, on the other hand, has a much stronger overall team and likely won't lose that much time in the ttt. meanwhile this result today(especially after a month away from racing), indicates that hamilton might be able to take time from armstrong on d'huez and hamilton is an excellent tt guy on the flats.

it should be a nail biter in july for certain....

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f/k/a mclamb6

One off day a month before the ture is a sure fire sign that Lance sucks. Yep he is washed up and won't do much at the tour. One bad race is all you need. I think he should quit cycling and give back his other victories. These last 5 wins where a fluke, I think the smoke screen has lifted off of this fraud. This one race is exactly what needed to be shown. It proves that he has no idea how to train for a major tour and proves that he his washed up.

One race that's all you need.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

I dont think we should under-estimate the planning of Johann. Postal said they were not necessarily going to Dauphine to win, only to check out conditioning. OK, so Mayo won this one - give him that. Lance was still Top Five.

This could be a very clever ploy by USPS to take the pressure OFF of Lance and put it squarely on Mayo (or others) so Lance can concentrate on being a tour contender and not a defending 5-time-tour-winner. All the hype and pressure will now be on Mayo to beat Lance and win Le Tour. I think it is clever, very, very clever...

Kinda like the 'poker face grimacing' from a couple of years ago when Lance feigned being in trouble only to attack like crazy and making them all suffer.

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Please! You and I both know that Ullrich would have lost considerably more than two minutes. This is probaly precisely why he does not ride the Dauphine.

Mt. Ventoux results:

Armstrong

2004 - 57.49

1999 - 57.52

Maybe the competition has gotten better, but this is proof that Armstrong is in identicle climbing form to 1999.

Mayo could gain 2 minutes on Armstrong and Ullrich during the Alpe d'Huez TT BUT he could lose 2:30 during the TTT and 2:00 during the 60K flat TT. Tyler however, is looking very, very scary! GO TYLER!

Dave from VA

wow, that's pretty interesting. was that also a tt?

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f/k/a mclamb6

He may be in his 1999 form...but what form are the other in?

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?