July 19, 2005

"There was no chain on the bike."

When a cyclist says "there was no chain on the bike," what he means is the ride felt effortless. Unless of course the chain has really fallen off the bike.

For Lance Armstrong, the chain stayed on the bike, but the pedaling felt unchained and Tuesday's 16th stage of the Tour de France, the final tough mountain stage, was, Lance said, his best day yet in the 21-stage, three-week race.

Lance Armstrong, right, trailed by Ivan Basso and Mickael Rasmussen, negotiated the Aubisque pass Tuesday's 16th stage of the Tour de France. AP Photo

Lance Armstrong, the leader of the Discovery Channel team, retained his overall lead in the Tour. He finished 36th in the stage, among a group of 51 riders who finished 3:24 behind the winner. His main rivals were also part of that group, so he maintained his lead of 2:46 over Ivan Basso of Italy and the CSC team.

Armstrong easily answered attacks by Basso and Jan Ullrich of Germany, with T-Mobile, in the mountains. He cleared what was probably his last major obstacle as he rolls toward his seventh consecutive victory in the Tour, with retirement right behind.

"Today was my best day, my strongest, everything went well," Armstrong said, adding that "there was no chain on the bike," an expression riders use to describe what it feels like when everything seems easy.

"Perhaps it's because of the rest day, or maybe the fact it was the last day in the Pyrenees and I knew that if I made it through the day I was a lot closer to victory," Armstrong said.

He pedaled up two major climbs, the Marie-Blanque and the towering Aubisque. The Marie-Blanque is an ascent of 9.3 kilometers (5.8 miles), at a grade of 7.7 percent; the Aubisque climbs 16.5 kilometers (10.3 miles) at a 7 percent grade.

Now Armstrong has just five more stages to Paris, and he knows his chances are looking good. "If you avoid problems, avoid accidents, don't get some freaky illness and avoid catastrophes, then the odds are good because I'm feeling better and better every day," he said.

Lance Armstrong reminds me a lot of Nolan Ryan - and not just because both are Texans. Nolan Ryan was a better pitcher at the end of his career than at any time before - with fewer walks, a lower ERA, and more strike-outs per game in his 40s than in his 30s. And he was better in his 30s than in his 20s. Two of Ryan's seven no-hitters came after he turned 40.

Like Ryan's seven no-hitters, Armstrong's soon-to-be seven Tour de France victories is a singular achiavement. No other pitcher has come close to seven no-nos and no other cyclist has more than five wins in the Tour. Another interesting parallel: No pitcher pitches a no-hitter without good support from eight other teammates on the field, and no rider wins the Tour de France without good support from his team - of eight cyclists.

Selfishly, I wish Lance Armstrong would keep racing. I like watching him race, watching his steely expression as he methodically grinds up mountain after mountain, grinding down his competition and withstanding every challenge thrown at him. But I wanted Nolan Ryan to never stop pitching, Michael Jordan never to stop playing basketball and John Elway to keep on quarterbacking the Broncos, too.

But what would an eighth win prove? What would it mean? Nothing that winning seven won't prove. Seven is enough. Enough hours of hard training, enough meticulous preparation, enough risk, enough victories, enough prize money, enough fame, enough success, enough proof that cancer isn't a death sentence.

Go to Paris, Lance. Go out on top. And then go home. You deserve it.