Lance Armstrong: The Painful End of an Era

This was the stage where the Tour de France was truly going to start. Stage 8 offered up two category 1 climbs--guaranteed to shake up the general classification. Little did we know that this stage was now going to be forever known as the place where Lance Armstrong's Tour de France career came to an end.

Coming out of a roundabout, the seven-time Tour champion clipped a pedal and went down. The footage shown on television doesn't do Armstrong's crash justice. Across the street, and from the sound of it a couple of bottles of wine into their spectating day, a fan caught the moment on video: Armstrong sliding on his back at about 60 kilometers an hour (I've included the YouTube video at the bottom of this post). As we all know, Armstrong remounted and finished over 11 minutes behind stage winner Andy Schleck--effectively ending his last chance of winning the Tour de France.

With an 8th Tour win out of reach, will Armstrong now be embraced by the French? Johan Bruyneel said, "the French love the loser more than a winner." Looking back at cycling history we can see that is a fairly accurate statement. Five-time Tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil was never as popular with his countrymen as Raymound Poulidor, who was known as the eternal second. Here in the States, we put winners on pedestals, which is where Armstrong has resided for the past ten years. The struggle of an also-ran strikes a chord with the French.

As Armstrong struggled up the Morzine-Avoriaz, his once smooth pedal stroke had become choppy and his characteristic humped position on the bike seemed more pronounced. The crash on the bike had made pedaling a chore and you could see it written on his face as the camera motorcycle sat front and center focused on Armstrong. Chaperoned to the finish by teammate Jani Brajkovic, he finally crossed the line a defeated man. We hadn't seen this in his post-cancer days and it is unfamiliar to us. Almost shocking to see the hero to so many people suffering like a mere mortal. Will this suffering endear him to the French now as they have seen him stripped of his characteristic arrogance?

With all this coverage of Armstrong we nearly forgot about the other Americans in the race. Levi Leipheimer was in the main group, crossing the line in eighth place and eighth place on general classification. Another North American, Garmin-Transitions Ryder Hesjedal was in the second group on the road just a minute back and sits in sixth place on the G.C.

With the Tour de France and World Cup soccer both being contested, it was easy to forget that the Giro Donne (the women's Giro d' Italia) was ending. American Mara Abbott took the final overall from HTC-Columbia's Judith Arndt by over two minutes.

While Armstrong has said he's going to continue, it will be in a role as helper and there are still American riders to pull for. Leipheimer is going to step into the role he's always wanted--as leader of a team 100 percent behind him. Garmin-Transitions started this Tour off almost immediately on the wrong foot with Vande Velde's abandonment due to injury and Hesjedal stepped up, becoming their go-to guy.

While we still have a lot of racing in front of us, remember this is racing and once the shoes are clipped into the pedals and the peloton is careening down the road anything can happen.