Can Lance Armstrong win Le Tour de France?
The Tour de France started on Saturday in Monaco. The first stage was a time trial which was taken out by Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara. Lance Armstrong who is making his return to the tour after leaving the sport in 2005 completed the stage 40 seconds off the pace. This placed him 10th after day 1.
In the second day Armstrong just went along with the bunch and maintained 10th position. Stage three is where things have become interesting. With around 30km left in the stage the Columbia team decided to chase down a small breakaway. Much to everyone’s surprise when they did this the peloton was left behind.
A group of 29 riders ended up ahead of the rest with a nice gap back to the peleton. The group consisted of the entire Columbia team and more importantly, Lance Armstrong. As the stage unfolded it was Stage 2 winner Mark Cavendish who took the stage victory. He has to be the hottest sprinter around at the moment.
With Armstrong part of the winning group he now finds himself in third spot overall. He is still 40 seconds behind Cancellara who holds the Yellow jersey.
Many of the big names were caught out in the windy conditions that meant working together to chase down the breakaway. It has been said that 2007 winner Alberto Contador allowed the break to happen. According to French rider Christophe Le Mevel it was Contador who failed to stick with the wheel ahead of him and that created the gap.
Now with Armstrong sitting in third position the question has to be asked, Can Armstrong Win? The man himself is not ruling himself out. He won the tour seven times in the past and despite having a disrupted return to cycling he has experience on his side.
The tour continues with stage 4 on Tuesday. This stage is a team time trial and is to be held in Montpellier. The team time trial was dropped from the race after 2005 but obviously makes a return in 2009.
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