NCAAbbs

Lance was absolutely amazing in Stage 20, an individual time trial. At the first time check at 17 km, he was 7 seconds slower than Ivan Basso who was in second place and looked like his lead would shrink some. However, Basso started out way too fast for his own good and gave up nearly 2 minutes by the end of the day. Michael Rasmussen, the winner of the polka dot jersey (best mountain climber) was 3rd overall, he started out 6 minutes (they were released in 3 minute intervals) ahead of Lance and Lance caught him and left him in his tracks! Rasmussen lost over 7 minutes in Stage 20 alone, mostly due to 2 wrecks and changing his bike 4 times! He looked very unprofessional. Jan Ullrich, the last person to win the Tour before Lance started dominating, looked good today but not good enough....even though he finished 2nd in the stage, he lost 23 seconds to Lance.

Top 10 in overall standings:

1. Lance Armstrong-Discovery Channel team--USA 82:34:05
2. Ivan Basso-CSC--ITA -4:40 (4 minutes, 40 seconds)
3. Jan Ullrich-T-Mobile--GER -6:21
4. Francisco Mancebo-Illes Balears-Caisse--ESP -9:59
5. Levi Leipheimer-Gerolsteiner--USA -11:25
6. Alexandre Vinokourov-T-Mobile--KAZ -11:27
7. Michael Rasmussen-Rabobank--DEN -11:33
8. Cadel Evans-Davitamon-Lotto--AUS -11:55
9. Floyd Landis-Phonak--USA -12:44
10. Oscar Pereiro Sio-Phonak--ESP -16:04

Sunday's Stage 21 will be the last of the 2005 Tour de France and Lance Armstrong's reign. It should be an easy ride to Paris for him with such a comfortable lead.

GO LANCE!!!!!!!!!

The American spirit is better than everyone else.

After the last stage, the only changes in the top 10 were...Vinokourov won the final stage and moved up to 5th overall 11:01 behind and Levi Leipheimer moved down to 6th, 11:21 down. Other than that, the other 7 stayed the exact same distance behind Lance. He's simply an amazing athlete. I just hope he doesn't regret quitting at the top of his game. Hope he enjoys the celebration.