July 6, 2004

TdF: Lance Cobbles Together Another Good Day

State 3 of the Tour de France is in the books and Lance Armstrong had another good day, avoiding crashing on two rough cobblestone sections while Iban Mayo, considered a legitimate contender for winning the overall race, crashed and fell another 3.48 behind Armstrong. Mayo now trails Armstrong by 4:23 in the overall standings. Other main rivals Tyler Hamilton and Jan Ullrich are much closer, though...

Lance, who trails the race leader by just 16 seconds, could take the lead in the race tomorrow if his team wins the team time trial by a sufficient margin.

Meanwhile, today's New York Times explores "the Lance effect" on sales of high-end racing bicycles.

And ESPN looks at Lance's impact on the marketing of cycling and other products, and notes that he currently commands the highest speaking engagement fee in sports - $200,000 per speech.

The $200,000 appearance fee is partly due to the quality of his story as well as Armstrong's attempt to price himself out of the market as a result of a busy training schedule. It hasn't worked. This year, Armstrong will do at least five speeches at top dollar, but also turn down just as many.

"He looks like the normal guy with a baseball cap, who happens to be one of the world's greatest athletes," Stapleton said. "He has become a symbol for never giving up and people love to reach out and touch him."

It is for this reason that even if Armstrong doesn't win a sixth Tour de France title, he may go down in history as the athlete with the most support from fans that never even watched him compete.

The Naples (Fla.) Daily News says the Lance effect can be seen in the growing sales of road bikes and in the growing number of people participating in scheduled group rides.

Yellow is the color the leader of the Tour wears. And as long as Armstrong has been wearing yellow, cycling in the United States has seen a lot of green.