Guest guest Posted July 28, 2001 Report Share Posted July 28, 2001 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, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 30, 2001 Report Share Posted July 30, 2001 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 30, 2001 Report Share Posted July 30, 2001 .... 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 30, 2001 Report Share Posted July 30, 2001 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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