Lances' 09 Tour

[Cerberus]

Here's the fun part: when you're out on your bike 5 hours a day, winning is the same thing as promoting your cause, and about the only thing you can do to promote it more than just being out riding your bike, as long as you're out riding your bike.

"We might as well win," is how it goes.

And if AC were on another team, he might have done it.

Yeah, if only his loyalty to Contador hadn't held him back.

 

[manolo]

If only his loyalty to Contador hadn't held him back.,,

I think there's a moment in the 1997 Tour when Riis cracks and realizes he won't win the Tour, he then, if I'm not mistaken, gives it all to help Ullrich win it all.

I just wonder if, even though Alberto had won the 2007 Tour, if Armstrong expected to be handed the leadership of the team in the Tour, just based on his legacy. What I will always wonder, and wish I had seen played out, is the Riis-Ullrich scenario. If Alberto had played second fiddle to Lance, could Lance have graciously accepted he was not in shape to win the Tour and then willingly have sacrificed himself for Alberto?. Or, had Alberto inexplicably submitted to Lance's plan, would Lance have just fought till the end and ended up third anyways, never relegating the team leader spot? I can't but imagine he would have never given it up, based on how he used Kloeden.