|
 |
 |
(Photo: Yuzuru Sunada)
Saturday’s fifth stage saw no real surprises from the seven-time Tour winner, who predicted he’d be up with the leaders on the Willunga Hill climb, but not forcing the moves or creating any attacks of his own. In the end, the day saw another bunch sprint, another win by the in-form Allan Davis, and Armstrong finish in 23rd place, placing him 29th on GC, where he’ll most likely stay after Sunday’s final circuit race in downtown Adelaide.
“I had expected, just based on training, based on the power I saw in training, based on how I felt after five hours of training, I expected to be in the first few on the climbs. Which, I guess you could say, I was able to do,” Armstrong said.
“I thought we’d get a group away over the top. As you saw, a little group stayed together behind us, and Davis’ group stayed together behind them, so then it was just too hard to make a big enough difference to stay away to the finish,” he said after the stage.
Asked if the three-kilometer climb wasn’t long enough, he laughed before saying, “Well, if it’s long enough and steep enough, you get a bigger gap, that’s for sure, if you can sustain it. But at that point, to be honest, when the climb was over, I was glad it was over.”
Following Armstrong’s retirement after the 2005 Tour de France, Davis joined the Discovery team in 2006, so Lance, who remained a part-owner of that team, was well aware of the Queenslander’s ability: “Davis, I think I’ve already said it – he’s got a bright future,” Armstrong said.
“Like I said the other day, I think it’s a great story. He’s back, clearly, and if you look at the results, he’s invincible here. And we weren’t going slow; so he was strong enough to stay close, had his team around him, and came back and seemingly won the sprint pretty easily.”
About the upcoming Tour of California, Armstrong said he’ll be going from leader to support role for teammate Levi Leipheimer, who’s aiming for a three-peat of victories in America’s biggest stage race.
“Levi’s clearly focused on it – he’s training with a lot of intensity and specificity towards that race. He won last year, wants to win again, he’ll be very, very hard to beat for anybody. We got a great team there, between Levi, Chechu, Popovych, Horner, myself, Brajkovic… they’re [all] strong guys,” he said.
|
|
|