Tour de France 2003

[Craptacular]

What an incredible Tour this year! Even the green sprinters jersey went down to the final sprint, with the two contenders literally bumping into each other while crossing the finish line. Congrats to Lance on five-in-a-row!

[damnMikeBrown]

It must be a very special feeling. He can look in the mirror & see a legend of cycling.

The big thing now will be if Ullrich can stay away from the XTC & pastries this offseason & dethrone Lance. It definately looked like he came down to Earth this year (all be it an extremely high elevation).

[BreizhManu]

A Beloki+Ullrich vs Armstrong battle would have been great, sadly Beloki got injured.

Anyway that was probably one of the best Tour of the last ten years.

And next year it could be even better.

[MIJB#19]

Le Tour de Chute is over.

For some reason, the falling part has been crucial in this Tour.
Where Armstrong was lucky not to get too much injured and fell on moments where the competition could have waited easily, his main rivals all were unluckier.
Levi Leipheimer (who?) fell in the First Stage and went out immediatly.
Tyler Hamilton fell in the first stage, though how big the impact was and how big the crack was in his collarbone, we'll never know...
Joseba Beloki had the terrible fall downhill. To be honest, here I feared the Tour was over, I was happy to be wrong.
Jan Ullrich sealed the Tour victory in the time trial fall. (Sure it was about 95% over, but after the fall, Armstrong slowed down enough to have a relative save coming home.)
Iban Mayo fell when Armstrong fell, when things didn't get ugly due to (only) Ullrich and Hamilton's sportsmanship.
And then Lance Armstrong, fell in the first stage, fell in the first mountain stage, fell in the last (serious) mountain stage (almost twice).
That leaves the lucky men Alexandre Vinokourov and Haimer Zubeldia.

And do not forget Pascal Lino (in the red car) avoiding riding over Fedrigo(?) after the camera motor cycle came to close to the rider...
What about the fall that cost McEwen and Zabel eventually the green jersey (McEwen lost it there at first)? The stage where Allessandro Petacchi grabbed his 4th stage win. Not to mention Kirsipuu who fell in the same stage a minute later.

And why did Le Tour de France have the ridiculas Prix the Europe Enlargé(sp?), the price for the best rider from future EU countries. René Andrle won this price by finishing 2½ hours behind Armstrong, only 4 riders classified in the end.

Last but not least, Bram de Groot has probably been the best rider not winning a stage (well, just behind Zubeldia, McEwen and Zabel.) I hope he looks at Knaven and knows he should never give up. (Don't look at Lastras as that guy is maybe the most efficient stage winner in big tours in decades.)

The mass (bunch?) sprints could have been better, Mario Cipollini could have made it more of a challenge for Petacchi.
Next year, the organisation of Le Tour should ban Jaan Kirsipuu too, because he's acting like he's Super Mario himself, year after year, 10 consecutive Tours not finished must be a record.
Petacchi at least reached Paris in 2001.

Still, this was very much the most exciting finish of all Tours I have followed (this year was my ten years anniversary).
Of course next year I will call that Tour the best so far...

[MIJB#19]

dola.

Make that 11 consecutive Tours not finished by Jaan Kirsipuu, I forgot to count the 2003 edition as well.

For some reason he's the only rider to start every Tour since I've been following this event.

[Blackadar]

Armstrong won and all is right with the world.

[Anrhydeddu]

A great event, congrats to Lance for hanging in there.

[MIJB#19]

I got to set something right here.
For some reason my research on Kirsipuu was wrong, it was his 10th consecutive "abandon" as he missed the 1996 edition.

:o

[tucker342]

Great tour this year. Congrats to Lance, he earned it