Though not quite on the level of Indurain’s in Luxembourg, today’s was a serious spanking. Even more worrisome: next Saturday’s near-flat 49km final TT has Ullrich’s name all over it.
Lance had better take a good additional 45 seconds or so out of Jan before the Tour heads to the Atlantic coast, or he could well be in merde profonde. Problem is: Vino could just as easily take time out of Lance in the Pyrenees as well.
Bottom line: Lance is now LESS than odds-on to win this one. Great, great Tour finale shaping up.
As for the assertion in this post’s title, Laurent Jalabert seems to agree. In his post-stage notes today, he writes:
“L’ Américain a une grosse cadence de pédalage. C’est son style, il pédale en souplesse. Il ne s’asphyxie pas avec un gros braquet. Mais, s’il tombe des dents, il est moins efficace aussi.”
My take: high cadence and smaller gears are great for acceleration on the slopes, but not optimal for head-to-head TT clashes with an in-form world class big gear masher. They’re even less useful when the TT turns virtually flat, as it will in the final TT. The only positive side for LA’s technique vs. Jan’s is the fact that the final TT has plenty of corners and twists, hence the need for numerous reaccelerations…
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PS: Just saw this, from tomorrow’s Guardian (U.K.) at http://sport.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4715821,00.html:
"The Texan has lost only two time-trial stages in his four consecutive Tour wins, and each of those defeats was by a handful of seconds. Yesterday, for the first time in the three times they have met in the Tour, Jan Ullrich gained the upper hand on him in a solo contre la montre, by a massive margin: 95 seconds.
For all that Armstrong retained the maillot jaune, this was a defeat of epic proportions for the man who has dominated the last four Tours almost as he pleased, and it leaves the Tour beautifully poised for four days of climbing in the Pyrenees.
Ullrich is now just 34sec behind in second place. The Russian Alexandre Vinokourov cut his losses on Armstrong - another clear sign that the master is not what he was - and remains within a minute. It is a position of unprecedented precariousness with a week’s racing to go, including another time-trial where Ullrich may well gain time, and Armstrong recognised that immediately after the stage.
“I don’t have much time , and I’ll have to attack in the Pyrenees,” he said. Half an hour later, however, in what smacked of a need to convince himself and the opposition, he had changed his mind. "I don’t know I have to take more time back.
“Jan had a super day, but besides today, he hasn’t beaten me in a time-trial in the Tour. I can still be confident. It’s not my responsibility to attack. If I start in Nantes with 34 seconds, I wouldn’t lose sleep.”
Whatever you say, Lance. Who’s trying to convince whom here? 