CAP DECOUVERTE, France, 19 July 2003 — Jan Ullrich emerged as the rider capable of denying race leader Lance Armstrong a record-equaling fifth Tour de France victory when he crushed the American in a 47 km time trial yesterday.
Ullrich, the 1997 champion, had not won a Tour time trial since 1998 but produced an astonishing 12th stage ride of 58 minutes 32 seconds, slashing Armstrong’s lead over him from 2:10 to just 34 seconds as he swept into second place.
Kazakhstan’s Alexander Vinokourov was third on the day, two minutes six seconds off the pace. He dropped to third in the overall standings, 51 seconds behind Armstrong.
The loss was all the more significant for the Texan as he had called the sprint between Gaillac and Cap Decouverte “the most important time trial in my whole career”.
But Armstrong was outclassed and outpaced by the Bianchi team leader, who had missed last year’s Tour because of a knee injury and a doping ban.
“I’m exhausted and overjoyed,” Ullrich said. “I came to race a good Tour and hopefully win a stage, which I’ve done now.
“I had never beaten Lance Armstrong in a time trial. This is great. This is my comeback year and I’m bit surprised that things are going so well.”
Armstrong, beaten for only the second time in a major time trial since 1999, conceded defeat — but warned the Tour was not finished yet.
“Ullrich raced a super time trial. Now he’s the Tour favorite,” he said.
“I said it many times before that he was my leading rival.
“But we now have four difficult days in the mountains, I have a very good team and the Tour is far from over.”
A winner six years ago, Ullrich has been a Tour runner-up four times — in 1996, 1998 and behind Armstrong in 2000 and 2001.
The rider from Rostock has never had it so good since 1998, when he won both time trials on the Tour before losing overall to Italian climber Marco Pantani.
Given the margin of his fifth Tour time trial victory, the German will now be favorite to add a sixth in the 49 km sprint between Pornic and Nantes on the penultimate day, July 26.
Ullrich could secure his second Tour victory that day, should he beat Armstrong in the same commanding fashion — and assuming he can stay the pace in the days ahead.
“Now we have the Pyrenees,” Ullrich said. “Those four tough days will be the highlight of this year’s Tour. A lot can happen there.
“Everything is possible but for the moment, I just want to enjoy my victory and I don’t want to think about tomorrow.”
As expected, the classic duel between Armstrong and Ullrich which had been the highlight of the 2000 and 2001 Tours, started all over again in the furnace of southwestern France.
After 13 km, the best two time trial specialists in the world had clocked exactly the same time of 16:26, while other contenders such as Vinokourov, Briton David Millar and American Tyler Hamilton had to just limit the damage.
By contrast, climbers like Spaniards Iban Mayo or Francisco Mancebo were left five minutes adrift and will now struggle to make up the lost time in the Pyrenees.
