July 24, 2004

Stage 19: Besançon - Besançon (Time Trial)

Stage 19 in Besançon is a time trial. I wanted to get there early to get a spot at the start ramp. I got a late start and ended up in Besançon at about 9 AM. The first rider in the time trial was scheduled to start at about 11:30 AM. Once in the city I found the start area and it was packed. I did notice a couple of people on a 10 foot high wall on the other side of the side walk, but with my camera bag I could never climb it. So I walked around the complex, which turned out to be a hospital, and was able to find some stairs behind the wall. I ended up sitting on the wall for about 6 hours through a number of showers. Met a few Americans on the wall and a few of the people who worked at the hospital on the stairs behind the wall. We were all soaked and cold and stiff from sitting on the concrete wall for so long in the rain. One celebrity was at the start and it was not Sheryl Crow. After Lance Armstrong started a few of us tried to find another spot out on the course, but the closest spot was few kilometers away and the maps of the course had almost everyone we ran into confused. I ended up spending the time trying to figure out where I parked. Luckily the mapping program I used kept the last position where I had the gps turned on. Right where I parked. Below are a few pictures from Besançon and some of the starts in the time trial. And of course Jean-Marie Lablanc (Race director of the Tour de France) with celebrity. Although Lance had pretty much wrapped up win number 6, barring a crash, he again dominated the field in a time trial.

Results
Stage 19
1 Lance Armstrong (US Postal)
2 Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) -1:01
3 Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile) -1:27
4 Floyd Landis (US Postal) -2:25
5 Bobby Julich (Team CSC) -2:48
6 Ivan Basso (Team CSC) -2:50
7 Jens Voigt (Team CSC) -3:19
8 Vladimir Karpets (Illes Balears - Banesto) -3:33
9 Jose Luis Rubiera (US Postal) -3:40
10 Jose Azevedo (US Postal) -3:49

General Classification
1 Lance Armstrong (US Postal)
2 Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile) -0:06:38
3 Ivan Basso (Team CSC) -0:06:59
4 Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) -0:09:09
5 Jose Azevedo (US Postal) -0:14:30
6 Francisco Mancebo Pérez (Illes Balears - Banesto) -0:18:20
7 Georg Totschnig (Gerolsteiner) -0:18:46
8 Carlos Sastre (Team CSC) -0:20:10
9 Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank) -0:20:31
10 Oscar Pereiro (Phonak) -0:23:13