- Title: FRANCE: LANCE ARMSTRONG PREPARES FOR THE TOUR DE FRANCE CYCLE RACE
- Date: 3rd July 2003
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 3, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF LANCE ARMSTRONG TRAINING WITH US POSTAL TEAM MATES 2. ARMSTRONG HEADS FOR NEWS CONFERENCE 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LANCE ARMSTRONG SAYS: "I think that I should probably start, like last year, in the team jersey and earn and deserve the yellow jersey. I started with the yellow jersey in 2001 and it didn't feel right to me. So for this reason and also for the reason, like last year, I'll most likely start in the US Postal jersey -- and hopefully earn the (yellow) jersey and hopefully, at some point in the next three weeks, have it" 4. LANCE ARMSTRONG TRAINS WITH TEAM MATES 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LANCE ARMSTRONG JOKES ABOUT HIS POPULARITY IN FRANCE, SAYING: "I think you can always do more to win somebody's love. But, I suppose I could switch nationalities -- which isn't (not) an option. But at the end of the day I show up -- we're there by grace, because it is there by grace -- I show up prepared, I show up motivated and I show up because I love it and I respect it and I want to do well. And to me that's the biggest compliment you can give a country or give their event is that 'look what you started. I come from a land far away but I absolutely love what you started and nothing means more to me than to win this event. So that's the approach that I take and hope that the people follow and appreciate and support that approach" 6. LANCE ARMSTRONG TRAINS WITH TEAM MATES 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LANCE ARMSTRONG SAYS: "I think the race will be more challenging for us. I think it will be a tighter race. I'm not getting any younger and therefore probably not getting any stronger. Other guys are reaching the pinnacle of their career. You I know I think there are some wild cards that can really change the face of the race" 8. REPORTERS 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LANCE ARMSTRONG SAYS: "I wish I could come into these races and everybody say 'he can't win'. That tends to work better. So yes, when everybody talks about victory and 'what's gonna happen?' and 'what you gonna do?'it gives me a bad feeling. But I have to stay realistic and understand that, you know, nothing is given in this sport and anybody can win" 10. ARMSTRONG AFTER NEWS CONFERENCE PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 3, 2003) (POOL - ACCESS ALL) 11. VARIOUS OF ARMSTRONG UNDERGOING MEDICAL EXAMINATION 12. ARMSTRONG'S US POSTAL TEAM MATE, ROBERTO HERAS, LISTENS TO THE AMERICAN'S HEART BEAT THROUGH STETHOSCOPE PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 3, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ARMSTRONG'S US POSTAL TEAM MATE, ROBERTO HERAS, SAYS: "My objective in this tour is to help Lance to win his fifth tour and all the team. I think our main goal is to win the Tour with Lance." 14. US POSTAL TEAM TRAINS Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
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- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVA2CJNW5T909ED2SZYM7SOMLIEF
- Story Text:Lance Armstrong looks poised to make Tour de France
history.
The Texan is aiming for a fifth victory in the race
starting on Saturday (July 5) -- a feat only achieved by four
men in the past.
For the American cancer-survivor to join the elite of
world cycling on the centenary Tour would be ideal.
He hopes to emulate Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard
Hinault and Miguel Indurain. A fifth victory in succession
would put him on a par with Spaniard Indurain, the only man
with five straight wins.
Speaking at a news conference in Paris on Thursday (July
3), US Postal team rider Armstrong said: "I think that I
should probably start, like last year, in the team jersey and
earn and deserve the yellow jersey. I started with the yellow
jersey in 2001 and it didn't feel right to me. So for this
reason and also for the reason, like last year, I'll most
likely start in the US Postal jersey -- and hopefully earn the
(yellow) jersey and hopefully, at some point in the next three
weeks, have it."
Referring to his popularity in France Armstrong joked: "I
think you can always do more to win somebody's love. But, I
suppose I could switch nationalities -- which isn't (not) an
option. But at the end of the day I show up -- we're there by
grace, because it is there by grace -- I show up prepared, I
show up motivated and I show up because I love it and I
respect it and I want to do well.
"And to me that's the biggest compliment you can give a
country or give their event is that 'look what you started. I
come from a land far away but I absolutely love what you
started and nothing means more to me than to win this event.
So that's the approach that I take and hope that the people
follow and appreciate and support that approach."
Looking to this year's tour, Armstrong added: "I think the
race will be more challenging for us. I think it will be a
tighter race. I'm not getting any younger and therefore
probably not getting any stronger. Other guys are reaching the
pinnacle of their career. You I know I think there are some
wild cards that can really change the face of the race."
Regarding his position as favourite, the American said: "I
wish I could come into these races and everybody say 'he can't
win'. That tends to work better. So yes, when everybody talks
about victory and 'what's gonna happen?' and 'what you gonna
do?'it gives me a bad feeling. But I have to stay realistic
and understand that, you know, nothing is given in this sport
and anybody can win."
Armstrong has always believed the Tour to be a tricky
event to master and a crash, sickness or a technical incident
can never be ruled out in the 20 stages and 3,247 kms of the
race.
But it is hard to see who could really upset the U.S.
Postal team leader, even if he had a bad day or bad luck.
German Jan Ullrich, the 1997 winner and four times
runner-up, has the talent to win the Tour.
But a knee injury, a doping suspension and team problems
have left him out of competition for more than 14 months and
he will only have two months' competing behind him at the
start of Saturday's prologue.
Spaniard Joseba Beloki, second last year, should again
play a leading role.
But he was nowhere to be seen this season and will have to
do without the support of compatriot Igor Gonzalez Galdeano,
banned from competing in France after a controversial dope
test for corticoids on the last Tour.
In Lorient last year, Colombian Santiago Botero became the
first rider to beat Armstrong in a long time trial on the Tour
since the American returned from cancer in 1999.
But Botero has also been quiet in recent months.
The Medellin rider has, however, left Spanish team Kelme
for strong German outfit Telekom and it could make a
difference.
Botero, who was fourth last year, has however always a bad
day in previous Tours and looks too inconsistent to challenge
Armstrong.
Basque Iban Mayo, who threatened the American in the
recent Dauphine Libere, fellow-American Tyler Hamilton, who is
one of the few versatile riders in the bunch, and Italian Giro
d'Italia winner Gilberto Simoni are all possible contenders.
But the Tour often sorts the men from the boys and even
though all these riders, as well as Italian Stefano Garzelli
and Vuelta champion Aitor Gonzalez of Spain, should end the
race in the top ten, they seem too soft for the peloton's
boss.
The following four men have won five titles before:
JACQUES ANQUETIL (France) won in 1957, 1961, 1962, 1963
1964
Anquetil's bon viveur lifestyle nearly cost him the honour
of being the first to rack up five Tour victories.
Anquetil could not resist the roast lamb and sangria on
offer at a rest-day barbecue in Andorra in 1964 and tucked in,
to the horror of his team and the delight of his rivals.
As the riders hit the Port d'Envalira climb the next day,
yellow-jersey challenger Raymond Poulidor attacked, leaving
Anquetil struggling with a rebellious digestion.
Then team manager Raphael Geminiani opened a bottle of
champagne he had been saving for celebrating in Paris.
Anquetil gulped at the fizz. "It's kill or cure," said
Geminiani, and it worked.
Nearly six minutes behind Poulidor, Anquetil recovered to
mount a 50 kph chase.
He reached the summit of the 2,407-metre mountain four
minutes behind to plunge recklessly down a descent shrouded in
mist and halve Poulidor's lead.
Then Poulidor suffered a puncture and his mechanic threw a
spare bike to him, which hit the luckless rider on the nose.
Amid the drama Georges Groussard clung on to the yellow
jersey, then in Bayonne relinquished it to Anquetil. Three
days from Paris, Poulidor triumphed over Anquetil in an
elbow-to-elbow duel on the Puy de Dome mountain, reducing
Anquetil's lead to 14 seconds.
But in a time trial from Versailles Anquetil clawed back
seconds to clinch overall victory by 55 seconds, the tightest
of his triumphs.
Anquetil died of cancer at 53.
- - - -
EDDY MERCKX (Belgium) 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974
No heroics and no risks, advise the wise heads, when it
comes to your first Tour, consider it a taste not a meal.
Merckx, never one to heed orders, turned his debut into a
banquet.
He reeled off six stage wins and finished on the Paris
podium in the yellow jersey and with the jerseys of best
climber and points winner in his bag.
That was how he got his "Cannibal" nickname, by gorging
instead of nibbling at opportunities, and that year, 1969,
when he won by almost 18 minutes, eight of those minutes were
gained in a 130-km solo from the Tourmalet mountain to
Mourenx.
Merckx had gone into the Tour still seething over his
eviction from the Giro d'Italia. "It was the worst injustice
of my career," he said, declaring his innocence over stimulant
traces found in his doping sample.
A vengeful Merckx unleashed himself on the Tour to become
the first Belgian victor since Sylvere Maes 30 years before.
"Only on a bike do I feel really at ease," he once said
about the demands of popularity that soared as he reaped five
Tours, three Giro d'Italia wins and one Tour of Spain, plus
world titles in a tally of 525 victories.
In 1975, Merckx was hunting a record sixth Tour triumph
but after 10 days as race leader he found his match in
Frenchman Bernard Thevenet.
On the Pra Loup climb, his 96th and last day in Tour
yellow, Merckx cracked after a welter of counter-attacking and
lost almost three minutes to Thevenet in the last six
kilometres.
Thevenet kept the jersey to the end and Merckx, nursing a
broken jaw from a crash, was reduced to a fluid diet for the
final week.
- - - -
BERNARD HINAULT (France) 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1985
A black eye and a broken nose to go with his yellow jersey
summed up Bernard Hinault's attitude to cycling's greatest
challenge.
His rivals knew that they were in for a fight whenever a
yellow jersey was waved at the gritty Breton who thrived on
challenge.
In 1986 Hinault, seemingly content with five Tours to his
credit, announced that he would ride in support of his team
mate Greg LeMond but the American sometimes had his doubts.
The aggressive stamp of Hinault was all over that race.
His persistent attacking blunted the edge of the seasoned
climbers and LeMond complained that it also gave him a hard
time.
"I tried to wear out rivals to help him but I never
attacked him personally. It's not my fault that he did not
understand," said Hinault, who was known as The Badger.
The badger is a fearsome foe when hunted and Hinault knew
only one way to tackle a race -- with aggression. His methods
earned double victories in the Giro d'Italia and the Tour of
Spain, a world title, and a string of classics.
In 1986, after five days in the yellow jersey he had worn
for 73 days in previous Tours, the colours were torn from his
shoulders as LeMond and Switzerland's Urs Zimmerman pulled
away on the Col de Vars.
Hinault was biting back the agony of a pulled knee muscle
but as he struggled he heard a motorcycle photographer order
his driver to stay with the Frenchman, saying: "Hinault is
going to quit".
Goaded pride was sufficient pain-killer and eventually
Hinault rode out the injury. Next day he and LeMond pedalled
into the Alpe d'Huez mountain finish side by side to fill the
first two placings.
LeMond, wearing the yellow jersey, eased slightly to allow
Hinault to take victory. It was seen as a fragile truce to a
war of nerves between the two.
Two days later Hinault won a time trial at St Etienne
where a year before he had broken his nose in a crash.
That success was his 28th and final Tour stage win. Three
days later, LeMond stood atop the Paris podium. Next to him
was Hinault in the spotted jersey of best climber.
- - - -
MIGUEL INDURAIN (Spain) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995
Indurain's five straight Tour triumphs sent cycling to the
top of television ratings in soccer-mad Spain. Streets were
named after him and a hymn composed in his honour.
The laid-back Indurain took it all in his lanky stride and
dedicated victory to the people of Spain.
"Win or lose, I try to remain the same person. I am proud
of what I have done but you have to keep a perspective. It's
just a bike race after all," said the man who was raised on a
smallholding in the Navarre region with brother Prudencio,
also a Tour rider, and three sisters.
His Tour philosophy was simple: Stick with the best
climbers in the mountains and then pulverise them in the time
trials.
"Aggression does not make me a better rider. I never shout
or scream at my team mates. Everyone tells me that I never
look as if I am suffering but when I watch videos of the race
I remember the pain," he said.
In 1995 the temperature was close to 34 degrees Celsius on
the roads between the Belgian towns of Huy and Seraing. Bjarne
Riis stoked up the competition and with five of the 54 kms
remaining Indurain discovered he was five seconds slower than
the Dane.
By the chequered flag he was 12 seconds faster and had
destroyed his other rivals in the process.
Forty-eight hours later, in the first Alpine stage, Alex
Zuelle went more than five minutes clear of Indurain on the
Cormet de Roselend climb.
The final charge to La Plagne, rising 1,970 metres, saw
Indurain's lieutenants, Gerard Rue and Vicente Aparacio, in
steaming pursuit. Their work done, the pair fell back and
Indurain took over.
One by one his rivals struggled to stay in his wake then
peeled away frustrated and gasping as he closed to within two
minutes two seconds of stage-winner Zuelle.
So Indurain was destined for another triumphant ride along
the Champs Elysees and into Tour history. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS - SOURCE TO BE VERIFIED
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