PARIS, 30 June 2005 — Lance Armstrong fears a long, hot summer but is confident his 33-year-old body can stand up to the strain to win a seventh Tour de France before he retires.
And his team boss Johan Bruyneel believes the Texan has only three real rivals — Italian Ivan Basso, Kazakhstan’s Alexandre Vinokourov and German Jan Ullrich.
“I guess the scuttlebutt in cycling is that I don’t like the heat and that I don’t perform well in the heat,” Armstrong said.
“We all look to 2003 as an example of that.”
But he says he is fitter this year than he was then. “Having said that, with the heat you have to be smart, you have to drink more and you have to pay attention to your energy levels. If you miss a bottle or two on a hot day, then it could be game over.”
And he admits he will miss injured Russian teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov.
“I knew I was going to be all right if I was with Eki.”
Bruyneel, his Discovery Channel director, says Ullrich, five-time runner-up since his 1997 win, Basso and Vinokourov, who have each come third in the past two years, are the real challengers.
Basso was the only one to stay with Armstrong in the mountains last year but Bruyneel said: “Will he be able to maintain his condition for three weeks on the Tour?”
Vinokourov and Ullrich both ride for T-Mobile, and Vinokourov finished 37 seconds ahead of Armstrong in a climbing stage of the recent Dauphine Libere Criterium.
“Vinokourov seizes every opportunity,” said Bruyneel. “And I think he’s more resistant and stronger.”
Ullrich was only fourth last year but Bruyneel believes he has prepared better this time.
“He is one of the best time trialists and always gets better in the second half of the Tour. He is weaker in the mountains but he never cracks.”
