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Outside Magazine, July 2005

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Tour de France
Street Fighting Man (cont.)

THIS WAS POSTAL'S game plan: The eight support riders would take turns leading according to their strengths. Flats specialists Pavel Padrnos and Viatcheslav "Eki" Ekimov, the Eastern Bloc goombahs, would take the valleys. Spaniards Manuel "Triki" Beltran and Benjamin Noval, banged up from early race crashes but recovering, would take the first climbs. Versatile Americans George Hincapie and Floyd Landis would lead up the latter climbs, leaving specialist climbers—Spaniard José Luis Rubiera and Portugal's José "Ace" Azevedo—for the ten-mile, 8 percent haul up to the mountaintop finish at Plateau de Beille.

"Keep things normal," instructed team director Johan Bruyneel,

"Getting six isn't at the motivational core of Lance," Armstrong's coach said. "It's more like, I'm going to go to the Tour and kick the shit out of everybody."

the dark-eyed Belgian who had overseen Armstrong's five previous Tour wins. Bruyneel did not seem to notice how abnormal, even outrageous, it would be for one team to control the race, start to finish, riding out in front and taking all the wind, on the Tour's toughest stage.

From the start, Postal rode in tight formation, no other teams contesting the space on the road. They set the pace high, not looking back. Three riders managed to escape early on. Voeckler's La Boulangère teammate Sylvain Chavanel took off with Mickael Rasmussen, of Rabobank, and Basso's CSC teammate Jens Voigt. But their escape gained them a mere six minutes, while Postal ground away according to the game plan. On the radio, Bruyneel described the damage Postal was causing. Euskaltel-Euskadi's Haimar Zubeldia, who'd finished fifth the year before, abandoned after 10.5 miles. Eleven minutes later, it was Denis Menchov (11th in 2003), then Gerrit Glomser—world-class riders, breaking apart like Chinese motorcycles.

Phonak's Tyler Hamilton, who was suffering from a severe back injury from a crash a week earlier in Stage 6, drifted to the back of the peloton. The night before, Phonak's director, Alvaro Pino, had suggested to Hamilton that it might be time to consider quitting. Hamilton, who had finished fourth in the 2003 Tour despite riding with a fractured collarbone, had said no—he'd gut it out, he'd finish, he'd never quit. Then, late that night, Hamilton sought out Kristopher, his physiotherapist.

"Be honest with me," Hamilton said. "Is my back fucked?"

"Your back is fucked," Kristopher said.

As the peloton approached a feed zone, Hamilton stopped pedaling and coasted to a halt. He stood by the side of the road and saluted his team as it went past, then stepped into the team car without a word.

Two hours later, it was Iban Mayo's turn. The Postals were blasting up the Col d'Agnes, and the Basque rider, a 26-year-old welder's son considered to be the best pure climber in the world, had been dropped with the rest of Euskaltel-Euskadi. As they rode together, trying to catch up, Mayo suddenly stepped off the bike and stalked disgustedly to the side of the road. His director ran to him and persuaded him to keep going, but the truth was clear: Mayo was broken, cracked, finished. A hundred thousand Basques stood up the road, wondering what had happened to their hero, the man who had defeated Armstrong during a time trial on Mont Ventoux at the Dauphiné Libéré race just five weeks earlier.

Postal rode on, trading the lead according to plan. In best Armstrong form, they kept it casual. They may have been hurting, but they made sure their rivals saw only an easy manner, an occasional joke, the easy flip of a water bottle. On one steep section, riders stared as Hincapie casually rode no-handed while he fiddled with his sunglasses.

"I tried to escape, but Postal was like a giant train that you couldn't escape," rider Francisco Mancebo said.

"On the climb of the Agnes, it was unbelievable," said Levi Leipheimer, an American riding for the Dutch Rabobank squad. "I counted 22 riders in the group, with seven U.S. Postal guys in front. I've never seen anything like that."

"Christ, the Postals were strong," Australian Michael Rogers said.

But Postal only dug the knife deeper.

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