Well, Lance Armstrong wrapped up his seventh consecutive Tour de France victory today, after winning the final time trial of his career by 30-odd seconds over Jan Ullrich. In the end, it was easy for Armstrong, as he beat second place Ivan Basso by over four and half minutes. While Armstrong didn’t dominate this Tour as he has others, allowing non-GC contenders to take break from the peleton and take stage wins, he and his Discovery teammates did well to manage the GC contenders and keep everyone in check. Discovery had a good tour, taking four stage wins (including the team time trial), with George Hincapie winning the race’s toughest stage, and Paolo Savoldelli winning on a long break a few days following. Yaroslav Popovych took the white jersey as best young rider, and served his leader well by leading the attack in the Alps.

Despite finishing over four minutes behind Armstrong, Ivan Basso had a strong race, especially considering he raced the Giro in May (and was beset by a stomach bug in the process). He was constantly pushing the pace in the mountains, and rode a decent time trial on Saturday. At only 27, Basso will undoubtly win the Tour before he retires. Alexandre Vinokourov provided plenty of fireworks, always attacking, sometimes to his own detriment. He also spoiled the plans for today’s ride into Paris by winning the sprint ahead of the traditional sprinters. There are rumors that Vino will sign with another team next season (one of his suitors is Discovery), and with the proper support, Vino could also challenge for the yellow jersey in Armstrong’s absence.

While I won’t deny that Armstrong is a fantastic cyclist, I’m also anxious to see someone else declared the king of cycling by dominating not just the Tour, but perhaps another grand tour, and perhaps a spring classic or two. Basso seems posed to be such a rider, as does Vino and even George Hincapie (though I wonder if he could keep up the pace for three weeks at a time). We also saw flashes from the younger riders as well — Valverde, Popovych, and even Salvoldelli. There are certainly enough riders to fill Armstrong’s very large shoes.

Posted on 24 July 2005