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July 20, 2004

Stage 15: Valréas - Villard-de-Lans

For stage 15, I went to the 12 km climb at Col de l'Echarasson. I parked in the little village in the Alps called Saint-Jean-en-Royans. From there I walk up the hill for about 8 Km, stopping occasionally to talk to some of the many Americans wandering around. Carrying the 30+ lbs of equipment along with the heat made it a tough hike. However this climb is not as steep as the Plateau de Beille. At the time the race reached my position Rasmussen and Virenque were at the front on the Col de l'Echarason, followed by O'Grady and Gonzalez. Ullrich was not far behind and had about a 30 second lead on Armstrong's group. Eventually they were all brought back by Armstrong and the lead group of 10 included Voigt, Sastre, Basso, Azevedo, Armstrong, Klöden, Ullrich, and Leipheimer. Armstrong won the sprint.

Stage 15
1 Lance Armstrong (US Postal)
2 Ivan Basso (Team CSC)
3 Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) -0:03
4 Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile) -0:06
5 Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank) -0:13
6 Richard Virenque (Quick Step-Davitamon) -0:48
7 Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) -0:49
8 Jose Azevedo (US Postal) -0:53
9 Jens Voigt (Team CSC) -1:04
10 Carlos Sastre (Team CSC) -1:24

General Classification
1 Lance Armstrong (US Postal)
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) (Team CSC) -1:25
3 Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile) -3:22
4 Francisco Mancebo Pérez (Illes Balears - Banesto) -5:39
5 Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) -6:54
6 Jose Azevedo (US Postal)- 7:34
7 Georg Totschnig (Gerolsteiner) -8:19
8 Thomas Voeckler (Brioches La Boulangère) -9:28
9 Pietro Caucchioli (Alessio-Bianchi) -10:10
10 Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank) -10:58