LUZ-ARDIDEN, France, 22 July 2003 — Lance Armstrong defiantly shrugged off a crash with a spectator and another close shave to spectacularly win the 15th stage of the Tour de France here yesterday and extend his race lead.
Armstrong’s first stage win of the race relaunched his bid for a fifth straight victory in the race after it looked under serious threat from Germany’s 1997 winner Jan Ullrich of the Bianchi team and Telekom’s Alexandre Vinokourov in the past two days.
The American, who increased his pre-stage lead of 15sec on the German to 1min 07sec, crashed around six kilometers before the summit finish in the Pyrenees after his handlebars got entangled with a spectator’s bag while riding up the last of the day’s six climbs.
Armstrong came down on his left side, sustaining cuts and bruises but nothing serious.
Spanish rider Iban Mayo, who was riding just behind the American, also came down while Armstrong’s main rival for the yellow jersey, Ullrich, swerved to avoid the melee and carried on.
However Armstrong, who said he knew he needed to go out and attack on the 159.5km stage if he wanted to win this year, refused to blame anyone for the incident.
“It was also my fault for riding too much on the right of the road,” he said.
“But after that I had a big adrenalin rush and just said to myself, ‘Lance, if you want to win the Tour de France then it’s time to attack’.”
After Armstrong got back on his bike he soon caught Ullrich’s group. They had respected the unwritten rule that riders do not benefit from rivals’ accidents or toilet stops.
Armstrong certainly appreciated the gesture but didn’t hang around for a chat.
“I knew they were waiting for me, but I’ve done the same,” said Armstrong, referring to when he sportingly slowed up to wait for Ullrich in 2001 when the German plowed into a field on a speedy descent.
“What goes around comes around,” added the American, who a few hundred meters further on bounced back from a near accident when his groin hit the crossbar of his bike frame after his gears slipped.
However the shock had a largely positive effect on the 31-year-old US Postal rider, who simply shrugged it off and went on to attack Ullrich and Mayo.
Ullrich, who had challenged Armstrong earlier on the Tourmalet — the day’s first ‘hors category’ climb — sat back on his saddle as the American forged ahead.
After passing La Boulangere rider Sylvain Chavanel — who had been part of an earlier breakaway with Colombian Santiago Botero — and giving the Frenchman a friendly pat on the back, Armstrong crossed the cloud-swathed finish line in 4hr 29min 26sec.
Ullrich’s failure to respond meant he finally came over the line in third place at 40secs, behind second-placed Mayo, also at 40sec.
But despite losing out the 29-year-old German insists the race is far from over.
“Lance Armstrong was the strongest today but it’s clear that he’s not as strong as he has been in recent years, otherwise he would have taken two minutes off me instead of 40 seconds,” said Ullrich.
“But the Tour isn’t over and it isn’t lost for me. There’s a hard stage tomorrow to come and then there’s Saturday’s time trial,” added the Bianchi team leader who stunned Armstrong in last Friday’s 47km time trial by pushing him into second at 1min 36sec.
Armstrong knows he will have to build a sufficient lead over his German rival, who he last raced on the Tour in 2001.
“Jan Ullrich is a great rider and there’s a lot of things that can happen in the week ahead,” said the American.
“I don’t want to wait until the final time trial (on July 26) before securing the lead.
“But the Tour is far from finished. I’ve always said the race doesn’t finish until we arrive on the Champs Elysees.”
Armstrong’s other rival, Vinokourov, who a day earlier had reduced his deficit of a minute to only 18secs, struggled to follow the pace on the final climb and finally came in eighth at 2:07.
The Kazakh, a former teammate of Ullrich’s, is still third overall but is now at 2:45 behind Armstrong while the fourth-placed Spaniard Haimar Zubeldia is at 5:16. Tomorrow is the last day in the Pyrenees before the race heads to flatter ground.
