Even so, Pantani dropped Armstrong on courchevel right?
He was already zillion minutes behind. Armstrong, who crushed Pantani in Hautacam, didn't have to react. OTOH Pantani's suicidal attack during the next stage to Morzine made Armstrong very nervous and likely caused his bonk on Joux Plane (probably forgot to eat properly). Pantani in top form could've definitely made Armstrong nervous more often and beaten him during at least one edition. Still, Armstrong would have been hard to beat in most years other than 2003. I.e. In 2001 he was incredibly strong in the mountains, even Pantani would have had hard time creating gaps then while Armstrong would have crushed him (like he crushed Ullrich and co.) in the last super-long ITT.
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