TdF Recap - Stage 4
Category: Sports (Pro/College/HS)...
Posted Wednesday, July 09, 2003 at 10:24 AM [GMT-6]

The Team Time Trial played out pretty much according to script, with the USPS/Berry Floor team taking an emphatic victory, 30 seconds ahead of 2nd place. Due to the closeness of the competition up to this point, and the relatively wide margin of victory by the Posties, we have the interesting situation where the USPS team now holds the top 8 spots (and 9 of the top 11) in the overall individual standings!

As reported yesterday, the overall leader is Victor Hugo Peña, the first Colombian to wear the yellow jersey in the 100-year Tour history. The Colombians have always been strong -- really strong -- in the mountains, but not necessarily the best all-around riders.

Lance is in second place, a single second back. Russian teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov is third.

The Posties finished the race with all nine riders still going strong; several had big grins on their faces as they approached the finish line. This is the first time the USPS team has won the TTT; they were second last year, and Armstrong was clearly psyched this year to put that behind them. The team averaged 32.8 mph over the 42.9 mile course.

Tyler Hamilton continues to hang in there, finishing the TTT with his team. However, due to the team's overall poor showing (10th place), Tyler is now 1'45" out of the lead, in 39th place. I wonder how much longer he'll last, although he says he's sleeping well at night. Any elite athlete or coach will tell you that in this kind of event, the rest and recovery phase is absolutely critical to being able to continue, much less excel. That's why even seemingly minor injuries -- as from an early stage pileup -- can lead to disproportionately serious consequences later in the race. Same thing with illnesses; exhaustion magnifies their seriousness, and a common cold can bring the strongest rider to the quitting point.

Stage 5 is tomorrow, 197.5km...hilly, but not too much so (two Category 4 climbs, the second most difficult in the admittedly subjective Tour rating system), so the sprinters will look to enhance their standings once more.

Sources for this recap included OLN's live TV coverage and the following website: OLN.com; Bicycling.com; CyclingNews.com; Eurosport.com; and the USPS Pro Cycling Team.