'Lance the missing link'
2006-07-14 15:52
Carcassonne - Discovery Channel team manager Johan Bruyneel admitted the absence of their now retired leader Lance Armstrong could have ended their yellow jersey hopes on the Tour de France.
The American outfit, who for seven years had dominated the race, crumbled on the punishing 11th stage in the Pyrenees and now have little to no chance of winning the race's yellow jersey.
Their main hope, New Yorker George Hincapie, trailed in 21 minutes behind a trio of riders which included his former US Postal teammate and new race leader Floyd Landis.
American Landis, who rides for Phonak, now has the yellow jersey and appears to be in a two-man battle with Rabobank's Denis Menchov, the Russian winner of Thursday's stage.
Armstrong, who still holds shares in the Discovery Channel team, was set to come to the Tour next week although after hearing of his teammates' demise his arrival is still not confirmed.
Ahead of Friday's 12th stage, Bruyneel, who played a major role in Armstrong's seven consecutive Tour victories, conceded that his team had missed the Texan badly.
"We now realise that Armstrong was really unique, and with a team around him it was relatively easy," said the Belgian.
"He was always where you wanted him to be, especially when things got difficult.
"We're no longer in the same situation."
He added: "He (Armstrong) didn't watch the race, but we communicated by text message. Everyone is disappointed, him too. But what can we do about it?
"We have to look forward."
The team's best placed rider is Portuguese climber Jose Azevedo, who before the start of the 12th stage was 7:27 off the pace of Landis, who left Armstrong's team because of regular spats with the American.
Bruyneel admitted the 11th stage, on which T-Mobile's fast tempo eliminated some of the big race favourites, had caught them by surprise.
"Yesterday's stage wasn't like any other we've seen. Everyone was waiting and waiting, then T-Mobile increased the tempo on the Portillon (climb) and that caused problems for a lot of riders," added Bruyneel.
Bruyneel said after last year's Tour that their successor to Armstrong could be either Hincapie or Popovych.
Hincapie had won the hardest stage in the Pyrenees last year, but without Armstrong there the big New Yorker was a shadow of his former self.
Ukrainian tyro Popovych finished only six minutes off the pace on Thursday, but he has a big mountain to climb if he is to challenge in the race.
After Thursday, Bruyneel tried to play down the damage caused by claiming they never came to the Tour with such big ambitions.
"We never came here with the ambition of winning the Tour, but we believed we could do a bit better than we have done so far," he said.
"Everyone was disappointed. I've just had quite a long meeting with the guys to try and find out what exactly happened. And what we're going to do now in the next few days.
- SAPA