The Hindu : Sport / Cycling : Armstrong-Ullrich: A clash of titans

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Monday, Jul 12, 2004

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Armstrong-Ullrich: A clash of titans

SAINT-BRIEUC (FRANCE), JULY 11. Reduced by cancer and chemotherapy to the role of spectator at the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong thought he saw the future of cycling.

His name was Jan Ullrich, a fresh-faced German storming toward his first Tour victory, aged just 23.

Ullrich was majestic in the Pyrenees that day seven years ago, climbing alone ahead of the field to the Arcalis ski station.

Watching from the sidelines, Armstrong told himself: "This guy is going to destroy everybody for a decade."

How wrong he was.

Today, Armstrong is a five-time Tour champion and Ullrich a five-time runner-up. The stakes for both riders could hardly be higher as they duel again on the roads of France, where Armstrong already has the upper hand.

For the miracle survivor, a record sixth crown and an indelible place in sport's hall of fame beckon at the finish line in Paris on July 25.

Another runner's-up finish for Ullrich would tie a record, too. So far in the 101-year-history of the `Great Loop,' as the French call their beloved celebration of cycling, only the indefatigable Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk placed second six times.

Armstrong, a wily veteran of 10 Tours, is the first to say that the three-week marathon won't be over until the champagne flows on the Champs-Elysees on July 25.

But at the end of week one, the Texan is in the driver's seat, 55 seconds ahead of the German he calls "the biggest rival here."

Of course, the trials to come may yet prove Armstrong's doubters right.

Perhaps the mountains, where the air is thin, the crowds oppressive and the climbs murderous, will expose a champion too old at age 32 to defend his title — as they did other five-time champions before him.

Is he distracted by doping allegations in an incendiary new book?

Has his hunger for victory been dulled by a post-divorce romance with rock star Sheryl Crow, who spent this tumultuous first week with him, even though Armstrong has previously said that bike races aren't "an environment for wives and girlfriends."

Ullrich, who at age 30 should be reaching his peak, arrived at the Tour slimmed down and looking determined. Perhaps it's simply his turn to win.

Don't bet the house.

For all the awe he says he felt watching Ullrich triumph in the Pyrenees in 1997, Armstrong doesn't sound like a man about to roll over.

Despite his early promise, the next two weeks could prove that Ullrich just has the misfortune to be the second-best Tour rider of his generation.

"Life changes and sport changes, and somebody comes along who is more focused and perhaps better prepared," Armstrong, fresh from the shower, told a small group of reporters after Day 6 of the race this week.

"Sitting on the side of that mountain, I never would have thought that I would be that person."

Cancer reshaped the Texan, both mentally and physically. Slimmed down by his illness, he found climbs easier. And he says the pain of a punishing ride cannot compare to the agonies of chemotherapy.

He resumed racing in 1998, won his first Tour in 1999 and, in four successive victories since then, has beaten Ullrich into second place three times.

The German, however, insists that Armstrong's armour has chinks and that he's not — or is no longer — unbeatable. But he also acknowledges that he simply can't match the single-minded drive of Armstrong, for whom the race is THE rendezvous of the year.

"I could never have battled to win five Tours," Ullrich said in an interview with the sports newspaper L'Equipe, whose parent company organises the race. "It's not in my mentality. I can't imagine being permanently at the top."

The bicycling ballet that is the Tour will likely start steaming toward its climax at the end of the coming week, when riders veer into the Pyrenees. There, and in the Alps that follow, expect duelling rivals to bust a gut trying to leave each other behind on climbs.

If the mountains don't separate the winner from the chaff, then two time trials in the final five days could prove decisive. Riders race one after the other on a course against the clock. Suspense is guaranteed.

In a first for the Tour, one of the trials will be run at a Mecca of cycling, the climb to the L'Alpe d'Huez ski station. Hundreds of thousands of fans will likely line the 21 hairpin bends, yelling and parting like the Red Sea as riders race past them to the top.

The 55-second lead Armstrong built over Ullrich in two time trials this week, one of them a team event dominated by Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service squad, put early pressure on the German.

Barring an accident that takes his rival out, Ullrich will have to pounce somewhere along the roughly 2,000 kilometres of road that remain if he is to win.

So far, Armstrong, Ullrich, American Tyler Hamilton and other top dogs have largely harboured their strength for the difficulties ahead, letting young Frenchman Thomas Voeckler shoulder the burden of holding the overall lead.

The showdown should be intense.

"The outcome of this race will determine how I will be remembered," Ullrich said in his autobiography published before the Tour.

"Either as a gifted talent who made life difficult for himself, but always managed to pull things together to succeed in the end, or as a sloppy genius who wasn't capable of using his exceptional talent." — AP

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