Lance Armstrong has finally decided to take control of the Tour de France with a fine stage win on the slopes of Luz-Ardiden. Despite a crash and a mechanical issue, Armstrong pulled away from the other favorites on the stage’s last climb and has now extended his narrow lead.

Interesting side note: we got to see a bit of the cycling peleton’s sense of ethics today. As Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton, Jan Ulrich, and others were trying to catch a breakaway, Armstrong went down. Typically, an American who isn’t versed in international cycling would say “sucks to be Lance…those guys are gonna take advantage of that.” But in reality, Ulrich and Hamilton held up the rest of the group until Armstrong could rejoin them, as one of the unwritten rules of cycling says you shouldn’t benefit from an opponents crash. Armstrong returned the favor by putting the hammer down on the last climb….

Posted on 21 July 2003