Armstrong Taking IV's to Continue Tour Race

CBS News and the BBC/OLN Coverage ^ | July 19, 2003 | Phil Liggett

[ewing]

Lance just announced in the post race that he dropped 15 pounds of weight in one day and recieved IV treatment for dehyradation and exhaustion after racing in the Pyrenees 100 degree heat.

His main challenger Ullrich launched a big attack today but Armstrong managed to find some reserve and maintain the yellow jersey by 15 seconds.

For every 5% of body fat lost, the experts said the rider loses 20% power, and Lance lost 7-8 percent yesterday.

[ewing]

A thrilling race today, one of the best in years! All of the leaders launching attack after attacks..

[MEG33]

I managed to remember and caught the last hour.It was a RACE!

[amom]

Whew! Go Lance!

[ewing]

It was a magnificent comeback ride, Lance needs to hold on and regain his strength for another 3 mountain days!

And credit should go to the US Postal Team who head 3 riders up in the mountaInS with Lance!

Even with Lance at -20% power he is still :15 seconds ahead of Ullrich!

[ewing]

Lance said he was feeling better after todays ride and the treatment helped. This will be one of his greatest victories ever if he can pull this off!

[MEG33]

The team was great.The 15 lb weight loss sounds bad.

[ewing]

OLN said it was water weight, how much can those guys lose in one day and then fully recover!

[glorgau]

I agree, fantastic race! And they still have aout 10 stages to go.
For every 5% of body fat lost, the experts said the rider loses 20% power

About that, I don't think it's body fat, it's body weight - i.e all fluids. he probably did burn whatever fat had though...

[ewing]

Youre right, Armstrong has practically no body fat left..

[ewing]

Try scaling the Alps on a bicycle in 100 degree heat.

[concentric circles]

I suspect that Armstrong is still battling a virus. He noted earlier in the Tour that he had picked up something from his kids just before the prologue, seemed to recover but may be suffering yet or have picked up another variety, piggy back, while his immune system was still hard pressed.

This is all part of life when a competition lasts for three weeks.

[randita]

This is the first year all the big boys have formed a de facto team and ganged up on Lance. Amazingly he's holding his own with the help of some courageous teammates. I'm waiting for the Lance of previous years to just take off on a mountain climb and leave the others in the dust. Perhaps the heat and the residue of a virus will not permit that to occur this year.

Ullrich worked harder than Lance today. It will be interesting to see if that effort takes its toll on Ullrich in the remaining moutain stages.

[Prodigal Son]

Hey why don't you stop drive by shooting on the threads? You're pretty good at that- saying something inflammatory and leaving.

[Noumenon]

Try it sometime.

As a former masters class amateur, I can vouch for the fact that bicycle racing in one of the toughest, most demanding sports around. And one of the most exhilarating. I was nothing special in terms of competition. Any race I could finish was a good race. Any race I could place in the top ten was fantastic. But even the best 'big' sports players - baseball, football, basketball - couldn't have matched me stroke for stroke on something like the Bay Area's annual Mt. Diablo 'hill climb'. As I said, I was nothing special, but I could have destroyed any of them. I know this becasue we always had a few of those types show up for the race every year, and they always fell out long before the summit. Shoot, a lot of the women stomped their asses - a real lesson in humility.

Endurance, strength, courage and an iron will combined with a keen tactical sense is what it takes to race. Put up or shut up - that's where the rubber meets the raod.

[bandleader]

GO LANCE,GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TomB]

Come on guys. This is a sport? He's riding a bicycle in France for christ sake.

And what, praytell, do you consider a sport?

Actually, after reading all the Tour threads, I'm suprised it took so long for someone to come along and make this moronic statement.

[Prodigal Son]

Ah, don't worry about that guy. He's up to know good. That's his little game he plays. He won't asnwer any of your comments. He just comes, says something nasty and leaves. Like on another thread he said he thought the whole African continent needs exterminating. Pretty extreme but he doesn't stick around to talk about his comments. That's why I referred to his hit and run activity earlier.

[TomB]

I'm still here

If you can't defend what you said, no, you're not. You're just a troll.