Picture perfect: but Lance Armstrong's chances of winning an eighth Tour are all but over Legendary careers are not supposed to end in humiliation. Seven times as king of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong conquered the Alps on the road to Paris. Yesterday, the mountains ground him to a virtual halt.
Two crashes and an unscheduled diversion down a grassy bank added to the hurt as he trailed in 61st - 11 min 45sec behind stage winner Andy Schleck, with his dreams of an eighth yellow jersey shattered on the climbs to the ski resort of Morzine-Avoriaz.
Armstrong wasn't the only man to suffer in savage temperatures in the thirties which, combined with steep gradients and the rarified alpine air, left the entire field grateful that today is a rest day.
Bradley Wiggins was another of the favourites to lose time, although his deficit on the day of 1min, 45 sec and just under three minutes overall to new race leader Cadel Evans stopped short of disaster.
If this was his only poor stage of the Tour, he may yet emulate or better last year's finish of fourth.
For Armstrong, though, all that is left to ride for is pride. 'My Tour is finished,' he said. 'It's not going to be my year, but I'm not going to complain. It was bad luck at a bad time. There was not much I could do. I just couldn't recover from the fall at the roundabout.
Leading the way: Andy Schleck celebrates after winning the eighth stage of the 2010 Tour de France 'But there will be no tears from me. I've had a lot of good days here. This is just a bad day. I'll just try to appreciate the rest of the Tour, appreciate my time here and appreciate the fact that I'm not coming back here.'
Armstrong's first mishap came within minutes of the start when a pile-up at slow pace in front of him forced him to take evasive action down a bank.
Then, in the valley before the day's two category one climbs, he clipped a pedal at a roundabout, his front tyre punctured and he fell to the Tarmac at 40mph.
British hope: but Wiggins ran out of steam as the eighth stage of the Tour drew to a close With an elbow wound weeping, his jersey ripped and in need of a new bike, he found himself almost a minute behind the peloton, which had by now embarked on the Col de la Ramaz. He was paced back by four RadioShack team-mates but his injuries and the effort began to tell.
What he needed least of all at that moment was comedy bike riding in front of him by two Euskatel team-mates. In sharing refreshments, they collided with each other, fell and left Armstrong nowhere to go but into them.
At the top of the mountain, Evans put the American's fate in context. He said: 'When you have bruising and abrasions from a crash on a mountain stage, to continue can be one of the most difficult things you will ever experience on a bike. I know what that is like.'
Yellow is the colour: Cadel Evans celebrates with his yellow leader jersey on the podium on SundayEvans, like Alberto Contador, finished 10 seconds behind Andy Schleck, whose burst to the line indicates that as the weakest time-triallist of the race favourites, he may try to squeeze time from them on every mountain stage.
That would be bad news for Wiggins, who said: 'I felt good until the last climb, but I just couldn't hold on at the end there. I'm happy to admit that I wasn't quite good enough today, but there's still a lot of the race left so we'll see what happens.'
source: dailymail
