It Ain't Over Until the Fat Lady Climbs the Mountains

I thought that was it. The Tour was over for Lance Armstrong. He fell behind by 13 minutes by literally falling during three crashes and it looked like his prospects for winning the 2010 Tour de Francewere over.

Then I turned on Versus (Channel 603 out here - known as Tour Central in our house) last night and since it was a rest day they had on a retrospective of a past stage in the Tour. That's what you do when there is nothing going on with the biggest draw event you have.

They were playing the 11th stage of the 2001 Tour de France. You ask, why is this significant? Well Lance was 35 minutes behind the leader at that point (do you see the ending yet?). That would seem an insurmountable deficit, particularly in light of his measly 13 minute deficit in this year's tour after stage 8.

Well they don't call him Lance for nothing. He clawed back over 10 minutes on this stage alone. And yes, he went on to win the 2001 Tour de France, the third of his seven wins.

So I guess those who are counting him out at this point have to wait until the end. I am still rooting for Alberto Contador.