Am I reading this correctly?
After 5 of 6 stages Team Astana is 6th of 19 teams and Lance Armstrong is 29th our of 122 riders.
So?
Yep, Lance is 49 seconds behind the lead rider in the GC.
Edit: Not too bad looking at how many people are lots on minutes back. Looks like Lance made most of the breaks.
So…I’ve never followed cycling and have never looked at a results page. I assumed I was reading it correctly but thought I would check.
I live in Austin and a local radio show was making fun of Lance because he finished something like 120/133 on the first day.
When looking at race results of a stage race the time behind the leader is more important than standings.
On the first stage I think Lance was something like 20 seconds behind the leader. Not a big deal in a stage race.
Everybody that crosses the line in a pack or group gets “same time” But, if two riders finished with the same GC time overall, then placing is used to break the tie. A gap has to be 10m or such to start a new time, but I don’t remember the exact distance.
OH, and if you look closely 5th place is 38 seconds behind the lead. Lance could easily take 10 seconds out of any of the in between guys and end up in the top 10. Last stage should be interesting.
So…I’ve never followed cycling and have never looked at a results page.
That’s what I figured. Not trying to be mean. This is January. Lance’s goals are much later in the year. He’s a very disciplined individual. He won’t burn too many matches now. He’s just trying to figure out if he’s viable and can really do this. I think it’s quite clear from the results that he is and he can. They guys going all-out to win the Tour Down Under were … wait for it … Australian! For everybody else, it was the first race of the year … nothing more.