Lance wins!







I've been watching the Tour de France religiously for the last five years, and all five times Lance Armstrong has come through with the win, now joining the elite group of Hinault, Merckx, Anquetil and Indurain as the only people to win five times. The other four all went on to try for six, but none of them could do it, and given Lance's touch-and-go performance this year you can see why. The older you get the harder it is to perform at optimal efficiency, plus people have more time to study your style, looking for weaknesses. Everyone was saying before the tour, "Even Lance will have to have a bad day eventually." Well, he had several this time around, but it didn't matter, Lance on a bad day was still just as good as anyone else's best effort. If Beloki had hung in there and not wiped out, and if Hamilton hadn't broken his collarbone, it would've been a real horserace with half a dozen potential threats to the overall, which is unusual of itself. But Lance came through, not by much, but enough, and continues to inspire everyone who watches him.