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Certainly super human, most will never know how

hard he worked this year to win. A few years ago Lance

could be beaten by many road racers when he was coming

off the drugs.... Now all others can only wonder when

he is going to put the hammer down and leave the

best is his wake.<br> <br>Can you imagine eka pada

sirshanasan after a 100 mile ride? Lining up for advanced

after long bike rides is tough but the aerobic benefit

and sheer enjoyment of riding over passes or long

coast cruises is worth the extra work. <br><br>Yours in

yoga,

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yes - the tour is done. It is almost sad - such

excitement and heroic effort. In some ways not unlike

arjuna's journey/challenge. No i cannot imagine ekapada

sirsasana after a 100m ride but it seems you may.. know of

it? <br><br>I feel robbed that some things were

edited out of the airing - such as listening to the U.S.

anthem while Lance was on the podium. Veni vidi vici. An

epitomy of victory and effort and striving and liberty

embodied in the tune. Bravo. To all the competitors. The

warriors! They are the victors.

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.... not about yoga, so don't bother reading if

you're not interested. But a couple of people might

be.<br><br>There's an interesting interview in todays's Süddeutsche

Zeitung with Bernard Hinault - second-greatest Tour

winner of all time. <br><br>Greatest Tour winner of all

time - not Armstrong yet. Still Eddy Merckx - 5 wins,

34 stage wins, 96 days wearing the yellow jersey.

That kind of total dominance will probably never

happen again - I'm sure the general standard of fitness,

professionalism and competitiveness is so much higher today than

it was then. (I noticed that Eddy's son Axel did

well in this year's Tour). <br><br>The other three

five times winners: Hinault, Jacques Anquetil and

Miguel Indurain - the only one to have done it five

times in a row. Philippe Thys would probably have done

it too if his cereer hadn't been rudely interrupted

by the First World War - he won in 1913, 1914 and

1920. Although of course none of these guys - except

possibly Thys if he spent the intervening years in the

trenches - have gone through anything like the kind of

personal trials Armstrong has.<br><br>(No I don't know

this stuff off by heart - it's all in the

paper.)<br><br>Hinault's views: Armstrong is clean (the cynical could

observe that he he to say that, doesn't he? Which doesn't

mean it isn't true). He beat Jan Ullrich simply

because he is more disciplined and works harder (my

translation into English of a German journalist's translation

of what Hinault presumably said in French - any

resemblance to Hinault's actual words by this time purely

concidental). An example - apparently Armstrong trained on the

Chamrouse mountain time trial course three times, Ullrich

had never been near it before - and still managed to

come in a close second.<br><br>Tours these days are

certainly exciting to watch. I remember a commentator, the

year Ullrich won, saying that Indurain never won a

road race stage in a Tour that he won, only time

trials. The rest of the time Indurain was Mr. Consistency

- always in the lead group, but never the kind of

heroic solo performance that both Armstrong and Ullrich

produce in the mountains. Armstrong looks like a god now

- the other guys are great athletes but they just

have no answer when Armstrong decides to go away from

them on the big climbs. Ullrich was the same the year

he won.<br><br>Hinault believes Jan Ullrich also has

the talent to be a five times winner, but he has to

get his motivation & discipline together for off

season training. (He doesn't like riding in the cold,

but does like living at home in Germany - not the

best possible combination). But he's missed so many

chances already - has been a close second *four

times*<br><br>While I'm being a patriotic German, let's not forget

Erich Zabel's record sixth in a row green jersey win;

and Udo Böltz - who according to Saturday's TV

commentator has finished more Tours than anybody else ever,

whilst still finding time to be a serious contender in

the Hawaii Ironman. And the guy who came last a mere

five hours behind Lance Armstrong - also a standard of

athletic achievement that hardly anybody can even imagine.

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that is interesting - not that i can ever

remember the factoids. Yes, eric zabel did great (sad for

o'grady).<br><br>And of course Lance is clean--that's why he says in

the Nike commercial "I'm.... on my bike... - what are

YOU on?". <br>(I guess Lance SHOWed Cofidis ...who

left him for dead in the hospital. By becoming 3 time

winner of the Tour d France). And Ullrich did

excellently ...maybe he also does not quite have the anger

that Lance has.

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