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July 23, 2005
Stage 20 ITT underway
Among early competitors, CSC's Luke Roberts of Australia and Fassa Bortolo's Fabian Cancellara are your leaders.
Karpets comes in at 1:14:51 to take the lead, for now.
Rasmussen is away, and 2:30 into his ride he takes a spill at an early corner, falling hard on his right side. He's back up and away, but that won't help him maintain his gap on Ullrich.
Basso's away, and Armstrong's in the starthouse. There goes Armstrong!
In his follow car, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
US update: Chris Horner has caught his 4-minute man, Pietro Caucchioli, and finished in 1:16:39. Floyd Landis is 2nd to Julich at the 3rd time check. Now Vino moves in front of Julich at time check 3, 18 seconds faster than Julich!
Julich finishes in 1:13:19 for the stage lead at this moment.
First checks: Vino 26:09, and here comes Ullrich: 25:57! That's the new fastest.
Now Basso comes through, continuing CSC's strong day, with a 25:40 at the 1st check; Armstrong gets there 2nd, at 25:47. Who picked Basso to pace the time trial?
Rasmussen pulls to the side of the road just as Basso catches him on the road; he's swapping bikes, probably having problems from the crash. Rasmussen is not back up to speed; he's called the team car up. He's losing time in buckets now. He's switched bikes again -- Liggett thinks either 3 or 4 bike changes. Rasmussen rides off the outside of the road for a second crash!
Leaders are coming through the 2nd time check, and Ullrich is 1st in 46:57, 41 seconds faster than Julich and Vinokourov, :46 to Landis, :56 to Cadel Evans, who's riding an awesome TT. Basso comes through :34 back, so Ullrich is riding about 2:30 from 2nd place in the overall. Armstrong comes through 19 seconds up on Ullrich!
Armstrong is catching Rasmussen -- he needs to keep his distance so as to avoid catching whatever has afflicted the Dane.
World TT champion Michael Rogers bags a 1:17:04, nearly 4 minutes behind Julich.
Vinokourov comes in fastest so far, at 1:13:02. Looks like the only riders who might beat that are Armstrong and Ullrich. Evans comes in at 1:13:52, which is remarkable.
At the 3rd time check, Armstrong is 32 seconds faster than Ullrich, himself 38 seconds faster than Vinokourov. Basso has fallen off the pace a bit, but still was 4th-fastest at the 3rd check, 1:18 behind Armstrong.
ULLRICH: 1:12:09!!
At the last time check, Armstrong is 35 seconds faster than Ullrich!
Basso comes in with a 1:13:40. Armstrong is not far behind.
Armstrong takes the stage with a 1:11:46!
Incomplete:
Armstrong, 1:11:46
Ullrich, 1:12:09
Vinokourov, 1:13:02
Julich, 1:13:19
Basso, 1:13:40
Landis, 1:13:48
Evans, 1:13:52
Hincapie, 1:14:11
Karpets, 1:14:51
Popovych, 1:14:55
Sastre, 1:14:56
Leipheimer 1:14:59
Lang, 1:15:12
Roberts, 1:15:33
Cioni, 1:15:37
Cancellara, 1:15:49
Laszlo Bodrogi, 1:16:23
letour.fr | Intermediate time checks
Posted by Frank Steele on July 23, 2005 | Permalink
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Comments
Such a pity about Rasmussen's spill! I'd love to have seen him hang onto his spot on the podium.
Posted by: noelle at Jul 23, 2005 10:24:31 AM
Oh dear... Poor, POOR Rasmussen. Insult to injury, that wheel problem.
Posted by: noelle at Jul 23, 2005 10:50:33 AM
Talking to myself I guess, but this is is just unbearable watching Rasmussen's tribulations... now the poor Dane has crashed head over heels. It will be a triumph for him just to finish this TT now. Heartbreaking.
Posted by: noelle at Jul 23, 2005 11:03:06 AM
This is a tragedy for Rasmussen!
I don't know if I've ever witnessed this type of thing happening before (I've been following the Tour since 1985).
He just went over the handlebars, I'm glad I'm only listening on radio.
I think he might lose 2 (or even 3?) places. On a regular day, Ullrich would still overtake him, but this is very disturbing.
Tragedy.
Posted by: jerome at Jul 23, 2005 11:06:34 AM
Rasmussen was only 1:05 behind Mancebo at the first time check, and he has over 3 minutes on him at the start of the day, so if he puts himself back together, he should still hold 4th place.
Posted by: dks at Jul 23, 2005 11:08:14 AM
This is getting interesting. Keep an eye on this, because Basso may have gone out too hard. Ullrich seems to be getting stronger. I wonder? Can he catch him? I'm ready for some fun.
Mancebo has just passed Rasmussen on the standings. It can't get any worse for him, but it may.
Posted by: jerome at Jul 23, 2005 11:14:47 AM
No, I don't think Ullrich can catch Basso, even though Basso may have blown. Not enough km left.
Posted by: jerome at Jul 23, 2005 11:18:17 AM
Rasmussen is still holding on to about 15 seconds over Leipheimer at the last time check, so now it's looking like 5th place for the chicken.
Posted by: dks at Jul 23, 2005 11:23:29 AM
Poor Rasmussen!
He just lost 5th place by a few seconds.
Unbelievable.
Posted by: jerome at Jul 23, 2005 11:37:40 AM
This is horrendous.
Rasmussen in 7th!
Posted by: jerome at Jul 23, 2005 11:40:43 AM
Poor sap. I feel for the guy.
Posted by: Joe Missionary at Jul 23, 2005 11:50:00 AM
I've seen Rasmussen's type falling apart happen in other sports. Once 1 thing goes wrong, it's like the athelete goes down a slippery slope to worse things happening.
Posted by: Devans at Jul 23, 2005 12:33:21 PM
Both Rasmussen and Armstrong are giving me some lessons in what it means to set goals and not let other ambitions ruin your chances of meeting those goals. Armstrong has won all these Tours because that's what he focused on, regardless of spring classics and regardless of the European traditions of competing in a variety of races, not just one. Rasmussen knew what he wanted out of this Tour and he got it. And though today's collapse must be humiliating, he's got what he came after, and he got much more: a stage win and being one of the leaders through much of the Tour.
Posted by: senioritis at Jul 23, 2005 8:19:54 PM
