Tour 2003
Stage 19 - Saturday, July 26: Pornic - Nantes, TT, 49 km
Weather conditions:
''The strong northwest wind that always comes up in the afternoon here could aid the day's final riders, as it will be behind and across them. There are predictions for a record average speed in this time trial, which would mean that the winner will have to average over 54.545 km/h to beat Greg Lemond's 1989 record between Versailles and Paris.
Strangely enough, in that 24.5 km time trial, Lemond erased a 50 second deficit to Frenchman Laurent Fignon to overhaul him and win the Tour by just eight seconds on the final stage. Today, Jan Ullrich needs to pull off a similar feat, as he has a 65 second deficit to Tour leader Lance Armstrong, who hasn't lost a final Tour time trial since he started winning the Tour in 1999. If Ullrich doesn't erase all that deficit, he has a slim chance of making up a few seconds in tomorrow's final stage into Paris.''
David Millar started early that day.
13:51 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis, Credit Par Telephone
''11:04 CEST
The weather conditions today are not brilliant, especially for the first riders. It's raining (not heavily), about 19 degrees and quite cloudy. The wind is a fairly stiff 25 km/h from the west-southwest.''
And then the wind changes in a tailwind.
''14:45 CEST
Millar is flying towards the finish, taking the last corner very steadily and holding it up, catching Sacchi at the end to finish in 54'05.13 (54.36 km/h). Not quite a record time...but still very fast.
Millar also crashed, and said that the last 15 km was incredibly dangerous. "The wheels were just sliding away...there was nothing you could do," he told TV1. "They should neutralise that last bit. Guys like Lance and Jan, they shouldn't have to take risks like that."
''16:15 CEST
Armstrong is now about 2 seconds behind Ullrich over this first part.
Ullrich passes the first time check in 15'42 - an average of 57.32 km/h....''
''The final results: Millar wins in 54'05, followed by Hamilton at 0'09, Armstrong at 0'14, Ullrich at 0'25 and Bodrogi at 0'26.''