LOUDENVIELLE, France, 21 July 2003 — Lance Armstrong’s grip on the Tour de France was loosening again yesterday after Italian Gilberto Simoni won the most demanding mountain stage of this year’s race in the Pyrenees.
The American, bidding for a record-equaling fifth Tour victory, led the overall standings by just 15 seconds from German Jan Ullrich at the start of the 14th stage in St. Girons.
He kept that lead 191.5 km later at the finish in Loudenvielle, but a third rider is now on their heels, Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov, who attacked on the last of six climbs in the stage and is now only three seconds behind Ullrich overall.
“This was the highlight mountain stage this year,” said Armstrong.
“It was hard, but I felt much better than yesterday. Yesterday, I was in a real crisis after the time trial disaster.”
In Saturday’s first Pyrenean stage, Ullrich had followed up his sensational time trial win the day before by attacking the Texan and halving his overall lead.
Yesterday, Vinokourov joined the tightest race for final victory in years by surging ahead with Basque Iban Mayo on the day’s final climb up the Peyresourde pass, one of four first category climbs on the day.
The Kazakh and the Basque, both stage winners in the Alps, held a 53-second lead at the top of the climb over Armstrong and Ullrich, who stayed close together all day.
The defending champion and the 1997 Tour winner managed to whittle away at Vinokourov’s advantage in the descent but they still finished 43 seconds behind the Kazakh. “As I’ve said before, I’m having a great Tour,” said Vinokourov, who pledged to keep attacking until next Sunday’s finish in Paris. “Yesterday, I was not so good and I’m glad my form has returned.”
But Armstrong, who repeated he was not feeling as well as in the past this year, warned there was still a very tricky 15th stage today with a finish at altitude in Luz-Ardiden.
“I will give it my all in tomorrow’s stage, and it finishes at the top of a mountain, not with a descent like today,” said the Texan.
While the American was left to his doubts, Simoni erased some of his own.
One of the leading favorites at the start, the winner of this year’s Tour of Italy was rewarded with a prestigious stage victory after losing ground in the first two weeks of the race.
Simoni broke away with King of the Mountains Richard Virenque of France and Swiss rider Laurent Dufaux, another excellent climber, before finally outsprinting them in the little spa town of Loudenvielle.
“It’s great, but it does not quite make up for the disappointment of not having been able to compete for the Tour victory,” said Simoni.
The Italian revealed that his Saeco team director had asked him to quit in the previous stage.
“But I refused. I said I wanted to go on and maybe win a stage. That’s the way I am, I’m a fighter and fighters always end up winning,” he said.
Simoni, Dufaux and Virenque were in a group of 17 riders who broke clear in the opening kilometers yesterday.
With six climbs ahead of them, the leading favorites did not react and the group quickly built up a commanding lead, at one point reaching nearly 15 minutes.
Virenque was first to the top of most of the big climbs of the day and now looks almost certain to win a record-equaling sixth polka-dot jersey.
If he keeps his lead, Virenque will join Spain’s Federico Bahamontes and Belgian Lucien van Impe as the only riders to have won the climber’s title six times.
