The Hindu : Armstrong warms up for record attempt

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 06, 2003

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Sport - Cycling

Armstrong warms up for record attempt

LONDON June 5 . Lance Armstrong's dress rehearsal for his attempt on a record-equalling fifth consecutive Tour de France win begins on Sunday.

The eight-day Dauphine Libere stage race in France will be a final show of strength for Armstrong and his U.S. Postal team before the Tour next month.

Victory in this year's centenary edition of the Tour would put the American among the ranks of five-times Tour champions Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault of France, Belgium's Eddy Merckx and Spain's Miguel Indurain — the only other rider to achieve the feat with successive wins, from 1991 to 1995.

``The Tour is everything in my life. It's the reason why I get up every morning and as long as I ride a bike I'll aim at winning this race,'' the 31-year-old Armstrong said in an interview with French daily L'Equipe in March.

``When I think about people like Merckx, Hinault, Anquetil and Indurain, I get a weird feeling. I respect them deeply because I don't think I'm in the same class as them.''

``It would be presumptuous to say in advance how many Tours I want to win. It could be five or it could be six, I don't know. But what I'm sure of is I want to win it again.''

The American dominated last year's Tour, starting with a victory in the prologue and finishing with a win on the penultimate stage, an individual time trial, added to two stage wins in the mountains.

Such was his supremacy that the bunch started calling him `the boss'.

``I don't want to criticise the competition. They were strong but I felt great,'' Armstrong said after his fourth victory.

``I think we prepared well and the team was great and we were lucky enough to do what we set out to do.''

Armstrong has kept roughly the same team with him for this year's Tour, which starts in Paris on July 5, but is likely to find things a little tougher with the return of 1997 winner Jan Ullrich and Giro d'Italia champion Gilberto Simoni also in the field.

Ullrich, widely regarded as the only man capable of seriously challenging Armstrong, is back on his bike after 15 months out of the sport because of injury and a doping ban for amphetamines.

But, understandably, the German remained cautious when asked about his chances of winning the showcase event for a second time.

``I want to do well and I would like to win a few stages but talking about overall victory would not be wise,'' the Team Bianchi rider said.

Giro champion Simoni also missed last year's Tour when his Saeco team had its invitation withdrawn after he failed a dope test for cocaine.

Simoni was later cleared of doping by the Italian Cycling Federation, which accepted his defence that the drug was in some sweets he had been given.

The 31-year-old Simoni, who last raced in the Tour in 1997, is keen to challenge the champion.

``I'm a good climber and I'll try to cause Armstrong some problems in the mountains,'' Simoni said.

``In the four Tours Armstrong has won, he's always had an easy ride to Paris because he's never faced real climbers.''

Armstrong first rode in the Tour in 1993 but did not win the event until 1999 after returning to the sport from near-fatal cancer.

He was given less than a 50 percent chance of survival after being diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer in 1996.

But following surgery and chemotherapy, Armstrong returned to competition in 1998.

After four wins Armstrong's appetite for success is still as strong and despite the ease of his last title complacency does not appear to have set in.

``I'm going to take this Tour as if it was my first, not like a possible fifth victory in my record books, Armstrong said after the unveiling of this year's route.

``It's a historical Tour for sure but for me it's a new Tour, with the usual dangers.''

— Reuters

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