Tour De France 2005
Highlights Tour De France 2005
Seven wins in a row for Lance Armstrong is a remarkable achievement. It is quite possibly the greatest athletic achievement ever. True Lance has focused on the Tour to the exclusion of other races but the Tour De France is what everyone wants to win.
Its hard to make comparisons with other generations. For example in the 1970s the great Eddy Merckx was once able to win all 3 grand Tours in a year, which is pretty mind blowing. However bike racing has become much more competitive in recent years. I think it is very unlikely that the Triple Slam will be repeated again.
Lance never really looked under threat, although it was good to see T Mobile attacking in the mountain stages. They managed to drop the other Discovery team riders on some stages but Lance Armstrong was too strong to be dropped by any of his main challengers. However it wasn’t completely one sided, Ivan Basso looked very good in the Pyrenees. Alejandro Valverde was able to out sprint Lance at Courcheval, the key Mountain top stage. Jan Ullrich was on the podium again after riding an excellent time trial. Jan has been the most consistent challenger to Lance Armstrong during his reign. It will be interesting to see whether is able to be able to mount a challenge next year.
Revelations of the Tour
Michael Rasmusen was one of the revelations of the Tour winning a well deserved King of the Mountains competition. Many points were gained on an epic stage in the Alps where he finished several minutes ahead of the peloton to move up to second place. Unfortunately a disastrous time trial on the second last stage caused him to drop out of the podium places but in the mountains he was usually up in the leading group.
The Alps
(Rasmusen is nicknamed the chicken because of his lanky build. Quite a few people have noticed the similarity in build between me and Rasmusen, but the comparisons just about stop there.)
A. Vinokourov was often on the attack and was rewarded with 2 stage victories. His attacks didn’t always work and maybe he wasn’t the most tactically aware, but it was great to watch.
Tour De France 2006?
With no Lance Armstrong the Tour is wide open next year. Ivan Basso is many people’s predictions with Jan Ullrich realistically having perhaps one or two more chances of repeating his 1998 success. Outside the established favourites there are some new comers who if not this year, may have a good chance in the near future. These include A.Valverde (Sp) Y.Popovych (Ukr) and D.Cunego (It) Also it will be interesting to see whether A.Vinokourov (Kaz) is able to harness his attacking abilities to make a serious bid for the podium
Books on the Tour De France at Amazon.com
- Official Website of the Tour
Final overall standings - 2005 Tour De France
1 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 86.15.02 (41.65kph)
2 Basso 4.40
3 Ullrich 6.21
4 Mancebo 9.59
5 Vinokourov 11.01
6 Leipheimer 11.21
7 Rasmussen 11.33
8 Evans 11.55
9 Landis 12.44
10 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Phonak 16.04
14 Hincapie 23.40
17 Julich 24.08
33 Horner 1.07.57
41 Rogers 1.24.32
77 O'Grady 2.27.19
84 Davis 2.34.40
102 Roberts 2.54.12
105 McGee 2.55.59
123 White 3.23.41
126 Gerrans 3.27.03
132 Rodriguez 3.37.58
134 McEwen 3.41.52
142 Cooke 3.47.17
Points
1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 194
2 O'Grady 182
3 McEwen 178
4 Vinokourov 158
5 Davis 130
6 Pereiro 118
King of the Mountains
1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 185
2 Pereiro 155
3 Armstrong 99
4 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Crédit Agricole 93
5 Michael Boogerd (Hol) Rabobank 90
6 Santiago Botero (Col) Phonak 88
Best young rider: Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel
Teams: T-Mobile