Armstrong Holds Onto Second in France

The mountain stages have begun:

Lance Armstrong finished 15th Saturday in the Tour de France's first mountain stage, leaving him second in the overall standings behind stage winner Richard Virenque.

Armstrong, trying for a record-tying fifth straight Tour win, finished just over four minutes behind Virenque and achieved one of his main goals: leaving some rivals behind on the punishing mountain stage from Lyon to the Alpine ski resort of Morzine.

Armstrong trailed Virenque by 2 minutes, 37 seconds overall.
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Saturday's stage, the first of seven in the mountains, was the longest of the Tour's 20 stages at 142.9 miles. It included an 8.9-mile climb up the 5,342-foot Col de la Ramaz.

In local news, I completed a route about 100 miles shorter, on hills about 2000 feet lower. I did the Buck Hill loop, which sucked but wasn't as bad as it seemed last year--stayed on the outer ring the entire way, and the only drastic downshifting I had to do was on the last quarter mile of what I call "Dead Man's Hill" when I got hit head-on by a huge gust of wind that almost completely stopped me in my tracks. The wind was strong and extremely variable the entire way, which was bogus. Hey, I still did 40.1 miles in 2:29:45. Not Tour level, but good enough for me!

Two things that went through my head during the ride:

* Jesus Christ Superstar. I love that show.
* Dang Me. I hate that song.

Ride on,
ntodd  ¶ 3:30 PM