Thoughts after the Tour de France Stage 8

Published: July 11, 2010Posted in: News
Thoughts after the Tour de France Stage 8

Change the strategy in the face of injury and incident – a personal reflection

The first days of the Tour de France have been hard for everyone. At Team RadioShack they have been hardest for Lance Armstrong.

The opening Prologue bode well; 4th place-fantastic. But the Stages have proven to be different. A fall in the wet shook The Boss. He’s also been riding with saddle sores – at any time this would be bad, in the heat of France one can only wonder at how Armstrong has stayed in the saddle.

Stage 8 was destined to be another hard one for Armstrong. Down on the tarmac in the opening kilometres of the day, he was again stalled in his progress as a rider went down in front of him and he hit the deck, shredding jersey and skin. This fall came at the worst possible time in the day. The peloton was approaching Col de la Ramaz; the speed was picking up and perhaps thoughts were directed towards the climb ahead rather than the narrowness of the road. Quickly back on his bike, The Boss was helped back to the peloton by four team mates including the ever-present Popovych. In a show of sheer guts Armstrong wove his way to the front of the peloton.

However, more was to come. Cresting Les Gets Egoi Martinez (EUS) went down in front of Lance who had to dismount to avoid running into the downed Martinez. Seeming unperturbed Lance rode on but the accumulation of incidents and accidents was showing on his face.

The final climb of Avoriaz saw Lance slip back behind the chasing pack (and others were in a similar position, including Bradley Wiggins, whose Team Sky had forced the pace and looked to have a game plan that included winning the day. It was not be.)

The upshot of the day was that Armstrong slipped down the GC, having climbed up positions earlier in the week. Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Kloden and Chris Horner have the highest RadioShack positions in the classement; Levi being 8th, Andreas 21st and Chris 23rd.

A change in strategy looks to be in order. If Lance feels able to continue he certainly should. He is a great cyclist and inspirational to many. But his chances of winning or finishing on the podium look to be drifting away – regretfully.

Meanwhile Leipheimer, Kloden and Horner are progressing well. It’s been hard for them all but they are where they are. In the face of the conditions, the stages to come and the injuries and incidents that have befallen Armstrong I would advocate for a change in team strategy; support the leading 3 riders for the next week and as the classement standings dictate, focus the support on the leading RadioShack rider to the end of the Tour.

If Lance Armstrong recovers and is able to regain his GC place so be it – support Lance to the podium. If this is not the case then the full force of RadioShack needs to be behind the team’s leading rider.

I don’t know but I feel that Lance would support such a strategy. He’s a team player, a team leader and, with Johan Bruyneel, a team strategist of the first order. Placing RadioShack on the podium will be more important than who takes that podium place.

Ride Strong; ride strongest. Ride Team RadioShack.

By STaff writer, Julian Winn