Lance Armstrong is showing that he must have trained hard during those few weeks off after the Tour de Georgia. The Texan has climbed into second place after the torturous climb up Mount Ventoux on Thursday in the week-long Dauphiné Libéré.
American Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) is still the overall race leader in southeastern France by 21 seconds over Armstrong (Discovery Channel Pro Cycling), Alexandre Vinokourov (26 seconds, T-Mobile) and Floyd Landis (47 seconds, Phonak). The mountain got the best of early race leader George Hincapie (Discovery), who has dropped to 32nd place.
The steep 25-mile climb at the end of the 112-mile stage was taken by Vinokourov, the T-Mobile rider from Kazahkstan. A small group containing Americans Armstrong, Leipheimer and Landis finished between 37 to 43 seconds later.
The Dauphiné Libéré is considered a condition check for racers aiming to score big in the Tour de France. Armstrong has said he will retire at the conclusion of this year's Tour, which he aims to win for his seventh consecutive championship.
More mountain stages are coming up as the race heads toward its conclusion this weekend. Results are available at VeloNews and CyclingNews, as well as the official Dauphiné Libéré website.
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