Le Tour de Lance

Somehow, somebody got the idea that Lance Armstrong could be beaten in the Tour de France this year. The talk started weeks before the event, indications that Spanish teams, which were riding well, were seeing chinks in his armor. Armstrong had won the Dauphiné-Libéré and the Midi Libre, two tough multiday stage races before the Tour, but he didn't win their individual time trials, events that used to be his strength. And didn't he finish second in the Criterium International last March? Didn't that show his vulnerability?

Then the Tour de France began, and there came the clearest sign...