Armstrong wins Tour TT

Lance Armstrong showed he is the king of the Tour today when he won the Time Trial to Besançon. His teamates went out with marvelous times, then when "Yawn" Ullrich came around, he set the best times, with his teamate Andreas Kloden not far away from him. Ivan Basso was next, but he didn't do too well (as expected). Lance Armstrong came out of the starting gate with the fastest times at all of the check points, and beat Ullrich (2nd place) by 61 seconds! This was his 5th victory in this year's Tour, and 21st victory total in the Tour de France.

Tomorrow is an easy 100-mile day ending on the Champs Elysees. The final standings are Lance Armstrong, first, Andreas Kloden, 2nd, Ivan Basso, 3rd. (Ullrich, a five-time runner-up, was 4th). Jose Azevedo was 5th, 14:30 behind his team leader. American Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank) was 9th.

Thomas Voeckler, who was in the yellow jersey for 10 days, started in the white jersey today as the best young rider. However, he lost that lead when he lost way more than the 45 seconds he was leadings the Russian Vladimir Karpets (Illes-Ballears).

Richard Virenque (Quick Step-Davitamon) won the King of the Mountains competition with 226 points, and Lance was 2nd, with 172 points. T-Mobile won the team competition, with the Posties 2nd. The Sprinting competition is led by Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo), but the Norwegian Thor Hushovd could beat him, because the competion continues on the Champs-Elysees, and he is not far off.

For the overall contenders, tomorrow should be a fun ride around Paris with smiles all over, and some Champagne for Lance, which apparently hard his easiest Tour ever, with 5 stage wins and the team time trial in his palmares.

"I'm happy, because it's finished," he added. "I'm tired mentally, have tired legs."