CYCLING: The Pyrenees are famous for their capricious showers, which pour rain and hail on one mountainside while another is bathed in sunlight. Yesterday the clouds, mist, thunder and lightning came and went, but Lance Armstrong was immutable and his rivals simply evaporated. The race lead is not his - yet - but the race is now his to lose.
Each of Armstrong's first four Tour wins followed the same pattern, with the Texan taking a psychological stranglehold on the first mountain-top finish. The locations changed, but the pattern was the same at Sestrieres in 1999, Hautacam in 2000, l'Alpe d'Huez in 2001 and here, close to the top of the Col du Tourmalet, in 2002.
Whereas in 2003 at l'Alpe d'Huez Iban Mayo and Alexander Vinokourov had the edge, yesterday Armstrong reverted to type. There was no one fulminating an attack but, as one by one Tyler Hamilton, Jan Ullrich and Roberto Heras faded on the one-in-10 slopes, Armstrong applied the screw until only one man remained with him, the Italian Ivan Basso, the best young rider in the 2002 Tour, who was permitted to take the stage win.
Seeing every heavyweight rival struggling probably surpassed even Armstrong's wildest hopes.
"I don't know how surprised you were, but I was pretty surprised," he said. "Today we started confidently. I felt good for most of the day. We have the best team in the race; the question is whether or not the leader is the best."
There was little argument about that one.
There was no chance Armstrong would relieve the young Frenchman Thomas Voeckler of his yellow jersey, but he almost halved Voeckler's lead of nine minutes 35 seconds, in a single ascent, and is now only 5:24 behind. Voeckler is suffering from "minor digestive troubles". Ullrich, Mayo and the rest merely looked to have little stomach for the fight.
Ullrich, his face a mask of pain on the first climb, ceded 2:30. Heras ceded 2:57 and Hamilton a shocking 3:27. For a rider who has built his season about the Tour, this was astonishing.
Today the kaleidoscope will be shaken again, but on yesterday's showing the men who will worry Armstrong this week come from two teams, the nominally Danish CSC, and the Spanish of the Balearic Islands squad, formerly Miguel Indurain's Banesto.
Both have one advantage: numbers. CSC have Basso, who looked more comfortable climbing to the finish than Armstrong; the Spaniard Carlos Sastre and the American Bobby Julich, and Illes Baleares can count on the Spanish national champion Francisco Mancebo and the Russian Denis Menchov.
Apocalyptic is a term used by the French media to describe anything from an April shower, but yesterday it would have been no surprise to see the Four Horsemen whirling over the Pic du Midi and descending through the thick cloud to the concrete apartment blocks as the hills echoed to the sound of thunder and torrential rain. Although by the time the riders arrived the sun had returned.
The Basques were out in force, as they always are when the Tour nears Spain. Some 85,000 are expected this weekend, and at least half of them turned up here. Their orange T-shirts, hats and shorts, even orange codpieces proclaiming the liberty of Euskadi, were sodden but proud.
Sadly, Mayo was merely sodden, losing a minute to Armstrong and any faint hopes of a place on the podium.
Voeckler punctured at the worst possible moment, just as the peloton was gathering pace up the valley before the Col d'Aspin. He regained contact, strove manfully up the Aspin, but by the end his fight to retain his lead had a desperate feel as he zigzagged up the final kilometre.
Clouds of controversy still swirl around Armstrong. The question yesterday was whether his Czech team-mate, Pavel Padrnos, would be able to continue in the race. Padrnos will appear in a court in San Remo on October 27th charged with possession of a doping product, and the Tour organisers had asked the race referees for permission to exclude him.
The Professional Cycling Council (PCC), which deals with professional racing, blocked the move, on the ground that Padrnos' national federation had cleared him because the product involved is not on the banned list.
The PCC also requested that another rider, Stefano Zanini, remain in the race because he has served a seven-month suspension.
Today the race heads east, with two first and two second category climbs before the finish, 5,000 feet up at the ski station of Plateau de Beille.
In 2002, having won at La Mongie, Armstrong took an impregnable lead there, and he noted yesterday that "the stages are in the same order this year, and I remember then I felt better on the second day".
History did not quite repeat itself yesterday but, given that the verdict of the first mountaintop finish rarely lies, he may well be in yellow this afternoon.
Leading positions: 1. I Basso (Ita) Team CSC 5:03.58 2. L Armstrong (US) US Postal same time 3. A Kloeden (Ger) T-Mobile at 20 seconds, 4. F Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears 24, 5. C Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 33, 6. O Pereiro Sio (Spa) Phonak 50, 7. D Menchov (Rus) Illes Balears 59, 8. M Scarponi (Ita) Domina Vacanze 1.02, 9. I Mayo (Spa) Euskatel 1.03, 10. S Gonzalez (Spa) Phonak, 11. G Totschnig (Aus) Gerolsteiner all same time, 12. G Simoni (Ita) Saeco 1.32, 13. A Gonzalez (Spa) Fassa Bortolo 1.39, 14. C Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 1.59, 15. V Karpets (Russia) Illes Balears, 16. L Leipheimer (US) Rabobank, 17. P Caucchioli (Ita) Alessio Bianchi all same time, 18. B Julich (US) Team CSC 2.28, 19. G Guerini (Ita) T-Mobile same time, 20. J Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile 2.30. 130. Mark Scanlon (Irl) A2R at 26' 10".
Overall standings (yellow jersey) 1. T Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 51:51.07, 2. L Armstrong (US) US Postal 5.24 behind, 3. S Casar (France) FDJeux.com 5.50, 4. R Virenque (Fra) Quick Step-Davitamon 6.20, 5. A Kloeden (Germany) T-Mobile 6.33, 6. I Basso (Ita) Team CSC same time, 7. F Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears 6.43, 8. J Piil (Den) Team CSC 6.53, 9. S Gonzalez (Spain) Phonak 7.23, 10. C Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 8.11. 108 Scanlon A2R at 54' 19".
Team: 1. Team CSC 153:18.56, 2. Brioches La Boulangere 12.19 behind, 3. US Postal 12.47, 4. Illes Balears 13.26, 5. Phonak 13.30, 6. T-Mobile 14.35, 7. Quick Step-Davitamon 15.42, 8. Liberty Seguros 20.16, 9. Euskaltel 27.32, 10. Saeco 27.52
Points standings (green jersey): 1. R McEwen (Australia) Lotto-Domo 210 points 2. E Zabel (Ger) T-Mobile 201, 3. T Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 195, 4. S O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis 186, 5. D Hondo (Ger) Gerolsteiner 176, 6. T Boonen (Bel) Quick Step-Davitamon 128, 7. J Nazon (Fra) AG2R 116, 8. L Brochard (Fra) AG2R 102, 9. K Kirchen (Lux) Fassa Bartolo 88, 10. B Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 77. 83. Scanlon A2R 6 pts
King of the mountain (polkadot jersey): 1. R Virenque (Fra) Quick Step-Davitamon 95, 2. A Merckx (Bel) Lotto-Domo 57, 3. C Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 43, 4. F Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears 39, 5. P Bettini (Ita) Quick Step-Davitamon 36, 6. L Armstrong (US) US Postal 36, 7. I Basso (Ita) Team CSC 30, 8. D Menchov (Rus) Illes Balears 23, 9. A Kloeden (Ger) T-Mobile 22, 10. M Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 21.
Young rider (white jersey): 1. T Voeckler (Fra Brioches La Boulangere 51:51.07, 2. S Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com 5.50 behind, 3. M Scarponi (Ita) Domina Vacance 9.25, 4. J Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 11.46, 5. V Karpets (Rus) Illes Balears 12.41, 6. S Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 13.23. 17. Scanlon A2R at 54' 19"
Mark Scanlon rode steadily again on yesterday's first Pyrenean stage, once again electing for caution over heroics and riding tempo to the finish line at La Mongie as part of the so-called "autobus".
Scanlon was part of a 54-man group which finished 26 minutes and 10 seconds off the pace set by stage winner Ivan Basso, with riders such as green jersey contender Erik Zabel, former world time trial champion Santiago Botero and Filippo Pozzato finishing in the same time as the young Sligoman.
Today's stage is one marked out by Scanlon as one of the toughest in the race. He will again ride the stage conservatively, metering out his energy. The mountainous second half of the Tour does not play to his talents, but tomorrow's flat stage to Nimes will offer him a chance to go on the attack, form permitting.
"I've no idea if I will have a go on Sunday, It will depend on how my legs are," he said. "Saturday's stage will be one of the hardest in the race, so I just want to get through that and see how I feel. As things are I feel okay some days and tired the next - the level of fatigue goes up and down quite a bit." - Shane Stokes
