As the laps clicked by in the final stage of the Tour Down Under on Sunday, Lance Armstrong demonstrated that he had plenty of gas in the tank by attacking the peloton and briefly riding at the head of a breakaway.
He then dropped back and let the sprinters take over the battle for the stage win, which was taken at the line by Italy's Francesco Chicchi of Liquigas as Graeme Brown's foot came out of the pedal.
Australia's Allan Davis, above, finished safely back in the peloton, comfortable that his 25-second lead earned in three stage victories was good enough to win the Tour Down Under.
The sprinter for Quick Step has ridden in all 11 Tours Down Under; this was his first championship.
Armstrong success
But while Davis is ecstatic about his victory, Armstrong has to be happy about his comeback performance after 3 1/2 years of retirement. The 37-year-old finished in 29th place in a race in which every finish was a sprint; not Armstrong's strong suit even when he was racking up Tour de France championships. Even so, he finished only 49 seconds behind the Tour winner.
Although Armstrong kept himself in shape by running and bicycling during that time, you could tell by the coyness in some of his answers at press conferences that he really wasn't sure how he would perform in the peloton.
In the Classic last Sunday, he was happy to stay in the peloton. Then as the Tour Down Under started in earnest on Tuesday, he took on a new challenge every day.
Never dropped
In Stage 1 he stayed with the peloton on the hills. Stage 2 he actually attacked the peloton, which pulled him back after a minute. On Stage 3 he stayed with a breakaway that rode ahead for 50 miles. He met the challenge on Willunga Hill on Stage 5 and attacked aggressively on the second climb.
Then, toward the end of the 56-mile, 20-lap crit in Adelaide on Sunday, Armstrong bridged from the peloton to a breakaway and rode at the head of that small group. Those 37-year-old legs still have a lot of fight in them.
Something else about Armstrong's performance — he was never dropped. He crossed the finish line in the lead group in every stage except for Stage 2, when he crossed just 13 seconds behind the winner.
After the stage, he texted at his Twitter website:
“Final stage of the TdU is done. Had good legs today!! And the crowds? Unbelievable. Congrats to Allan Davis on his victory”
Tour of California
Now it's recovery time in advance of the Amgen Tour of California from Feb. 14-22. You bicyclists in the Santa Rosa area will be seeing plenty of Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Alberto Contador and other Astana cyclists as the team has scheduled a 10-day camp ahead of the California tour.
I wonder if Armstrong will ride more aggressively in California and seriously go for a win? The Tour of California route includes time trials and lots of mountains, features that don't particularly suit the sprinters.
Top finishers overall
1 Allan Davis (Aus) Quick Step
2 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank — 25 seconds
3 José Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne — 30 seconds
4 Martin Elmiger (Swi) AG2R La Mondiale
5 Wesley Sulzberger (Aus) Française Des Jeux — 37 seconds
6 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia – High Road — 38 seconds
7 Matthew Wilson (Aus) UniSA — 39 seconds
8 Mauro Santambrogio (Ita) Lampre – N.G.C — 40 seconds
9 Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Française Des Jeux
10 Mickaël Chérel (Fra) Française Des Jeux
11 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Slipstream
12 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
13 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia – High Road
27 Oscar Pereiro (Sp) Caisse d'Epargne — 49 seconds
29 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana — 49 seconds
Check CyclingNews for full report and results.
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