From the T-mobile site:
23.07.2005/ Like so many times before, Lance Armstrong stormed to victory in the
Tour´s final time trial to finish his career in characteristic style. In a
strong showing by the T-Mobile Team, captain Jan Ullrich came second, 23 seconds
back and Alexander Vinokourov third at 1´21. Most importantly for Ullrich, he
moved up to third place in the GC after a disastrous showing from Michael
Rasmussen. The hapless Dane crashed twice and required three bike changes. He
plummeted from third to seventh overall, with Vino also taking advantage and
moving into the sixth spot.
Afterwards, the top two T-Mobile riders were pleased with their performances,
but disappointed to have been edged out by the Texan. "I´m very pleased about
securing third place today, I would like to thank my team for their great
support," said Ullrich afterwards. "I´m happy about us winning the team
competition." Vino chipped in: "Armstrong has controlled the Tour again."
Basso fast off the ramp
Armstrong was second best at the first checkpoint, seven seconds slower than
Basso and 10 better than Ullrich. But things had changed by the second
checkpoint at 35km, where Armstrong led Ullrich by 19 seconds with Basso third
best, 34 seconds slower than Ullrich. Basso, though clearly much improved at the
discipline, started to pay dearly for his early efforts. He had lost still more
ground at 40km, where he had slipped to fourth behind Armstrong, Ullrich and
Vino.
Rasmussen´s nightmare
Back behind Rasmussen was creating the story of the day, with a series of spill
and team gaffes. He badly grazed his right side when his bike went from under
him at an early roundabout. Shortly after, he ran into mechanical problems
requiring a wheel change. With no wheel readily available, he was given a new
bike, which wasn't properly set up and needed to be changed twice more, costing
'Chicken' valuable time over 45 seconds on the side of the road. Rhythm
destroyed, nerves shot and chasing the game, he spectacularly crashed head over
heels into a ditch on a later descent. To top off his living nightmare,
Armstrong who had started six minutes behind, flew by him at the 35km mark.
Armstrong flying
From here Armstrong began to really stamp his authority on the race, regularly
rising from the saddle, turning the pedals with his trademark high speed
cadence. At the 40km mark, he had a stunning lead of 32" over Ullrich. The final
kilometres boiled it down to a vintage final duel between the two old
adversaries, but Armstong, like so often in the past, always had the edge over
the gutsy Ullrich. Meanwhile, a tiring Basso dug deep to finish fifth behind
Bobby Julich losing 1´31" to Ullrich. Coming into the final stretch, Armstrong
had lost about 10 seconds of his lead on Ullrich but still took the stage by a
commanding 23", leaving a big gulf to the rest of the field and third placed
Vino at 1´17".
For T-Mobile sporting director Mario Kummer, it was a satisfying end to a
battling Tour for the team, "today was a wonderful day for us. At the end, we´ve
defended our lead in the team classification and Jan clinched third place
overall. Jan and Vino rode excellently, the others fought hard." A fine magenta
performance then, but there was no stopping Armstrong, who retiring at the top
of his game, is set to ride off into history tomorrow.
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