Here's today's capsule from ESPN...looks like Beloki is a goner...last years #2 is gone. And personally, I don't think Ullrich can catch Lance. Go Junior GO !!! Ride for FIVE !!!
Today's stage will be shown at 1pm CST for anyone with satellite and/or access to OLN.
Thanks to Fidel...for his great, great posts and insight. From one Tour "freak" to another. Thanks , buddy !!!
Armstrong: I was scared like never before
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Associated Press
GAP, France -- Lance Armstrong kept his overall lead in the Tour de France on Monday after a harrowing ride in the Alps in which he narrowly avoided a crash involving a main rival.
Armstrong, bidding for a record-tying fifth consecutive title, made a strong recovery to finish fourth in the ninth stage.
Joseba Beloki suffered a severe right elbow injury after crashing Monday.
"I was scared like never before,'' said Armstrong, who took the leader's yellow jersey Sunday. "It was a real panic. In a moment like that, it's a survival instinct.''
Joseba Beloki hit the road hard when he slipped off his bike speeding around a bend on a rapid downhill section with less than 5 miles to go. Armstrong was right behind and just missed plowing into the Spaniard, who was taken away in an ambulance.
To avoid Beloki, Armstrong rode into a field next to the road. He bumped across the sun-burnt grass, cutting off a hairpin bend. At the end of the field, he got off his bike, carried it to the road, got back on and sped off.
The course has become slick because of the summer heat, and Armstrong said the road where Beloki fell was "not safe for a fast descent.''
Alexandre Vinokourov of Team Telekom took the 114.4-mile stage through the Alps from Bourg d'Oisans to Gap. It was the Kazak's first Tour de France win and moved him into second place overall behind Armstrong.
Beloki had been in second place overall before the stage started.
After nine stages, with 11 to go, Vinokourov is 21 seconds behind Armstrong, who is trying to match the record of five straight Tour wins set by Spain's Miguel Indurain (1991-95).
Iban Mayo of Spain, winner of Sunday's climb to the ski resort of L'Alpe d'Huez, is third, 62 seconds behind the Texan.
Jan Ullrich, the 1997 champion from Team Bianchi, finished the stage in fifth place and was sixth overall.
American Tyler Hamilton of Team CSC, battling through the mountains with a broken collarbone, was 10th in the stage and fifth overall.
The race took the riders past some of the most spectacular scenery so far, with glistening glaciers hugging mountain peaks, bubbling mountain streams and roads abutting cliffs in plunging gorges.
The riders scaled two peaks of more than 6,600 feet, including the 7,788-foot Col d'Izoard, a desolate moonscape of rocks, scrappy grass and ski slopes above the tree line.
On Sunday, Armstrong donned the yellow jersey for the first time with a third-place finish.
"I'm perhaps not as strong as in previous years,'' he said after that stage.
Four punishing mountain ascents remain in the Pyrenees. Armstrong remains the favorite, but not necessarily an overwhelming one.
Armstrong will have a relatively flat stage Tuesday, ending in the seaport of Marseille, and a rest day Wednesday.
An individual time trial of 29 miles Friday leads into four days of Pyrenees climbs -- considered as difficult as their Alpine counterparts.
Armstrong is fast enough to make up any deficit -- should he be overtaken before Friday -- in a time trial. Yet he may need to be especially quick to bank some time-in-hand for the grueling Pyrenees.
Here's a LINK with the best picture I've seen