Win his 7th Tour de France? He is still in the yellow jersey, but his lead narrowed, and one of his top rivals Vinkourov won Stage 11. Lance is an amazing athlete, and hope he can retire with one final Tour win.

According to ESPN, his overall lead remains unchanged. And the guy who won Stage 11 is still 4:47 behind Lance. Not sure that's enough cause to worry just yet.

[This message has been edited by Jackal99 (edited 7/13/2005 3:19p).]

The kicker is that CSC keeps loosing good guys. Zabrinske is out...today Voight withdrew. Ivan and Bobby will soon be all alone.

[This message has been edited by TxTarpon (edited 7/15/2005 10:11a).]

Lance lost time to Vinkourov, though he remains more than 4 minutes ahead. V is thought to be the leading candidate at this point to challenge Lance due to Ulrich's troubles. Still looks very good for Lance.

He'll win by at least 15 minutes.

Can Lance's team block out enough guys for him to win it all?

dubag:

So far yes. And with the rate CSC is loosing guys they will continue to do so.

Who is the biggest threat to Lance?

-RASMUSSEN 0.38
-MOREAU 2.34
-BASSO 2.40
-VALVERDE 3.16
-BOTERO 3.48
-LEIPHEIMER 3.58
-MANCEBO 4.00
-ULLRICH 4.02
-KLÖDEN 4.16
-LANDIS 4.16
-VINOKOUROV 4.47

Basso cracked last year, and Rasmussen hasn't looked like he has the team support necessary to keep the pace. Valverde would be a threat if he wasn't so young, and Lance won't let any of the T-Mobile guys win purely on general principle. Right now, I think it's Lance's race to lose through some sort of freak breakaway or a crash. (knock on wood)

Basso, Ullrich, Vinkourov are prob only legitimate threats. Anyone have any thoughts on what stage holds the most risk for Lance?

Basso is the only legitimate contender close enough to win. The Disco Train wont give up 4 minutes to somebody like Ullrich or Vino. Just look at the other day when Vino won...yeah, he won the stage, but Disco let him get away to about a 4 minute lead then cut it back at the end to where Vino only picked up a minute and change.

Basso has to have a great day on the same day Lance cracks. Plus, while he did improve from last year, Basso still cannot time trial like Lance.

It's not about somebody else winning...it is about Lance losing if it is gonna happen, to which I say it's not.

Sunday's stage will be the most most exciting!

Valverde has quit.

So Rasmussen isn't a threat?

RASMUSSEN....NO. This guy wants the "KOM" jersey and can not time trail worth a crap. Lance will put anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes on this guy at the last time trail.

Basso will be tough, but barring an extreme circumstance, Lance should retire on top.

Lance had a strong Saturday stage, finshing 2nd and opening his lead. Basso remains in striking distance, Ullrich and Vinkourov still over 4 minutes behind.

Assuming his team doesn't bail on him for a third time, he should own tomorrow's stage and more or less seal the deal. If he has to do it all by himself again like he did today, there might be problems, but I don't see that happening.

Today likely sealed it. The man is an absolute machine.

Aggie Jurist:

How did you like his response to Basso's attack? Man...impressive.

I think Lance can smell #7 now, fingers crossed.

One day closer to #7. I think the competition has conceded.

Yeppers...punking the Euros in their own crib for the 7th time...next year...I'm cheering for Big Dave Z!

Will be great to watch Lance coming into Paris, and celebrating his final TDF victory. Won't be the same without him, but there will be a lot of riders who will be glad to see him go-I think he could win another one if he wanted to.

Been tracking the time trial looks like he just crushed everybody, what a show, gets his only individual stage victory what an exclamation point on his career.

Go Lance Go!

Dominant today. He looked great.

very fun to watch him go out on top.

_______________________
Larry Legend