Stage 11 | Grenoble / Chamrousse

The Lance machine is rolling! He beat Jan Ullrich in today's mountain time trial by 1 minute and gained 7 minutes on the Simon who is still wearing the yellow jersey.

...His gain on the opportunist who wears the yellow jersey, Francois Simon, was exactly seven minutes. Armstrong jumped one place on the general classification. Ullrich moved two places, but still trails his Tour nemesis by over three and a half minutes.

And while today’s victory against the clock put time into all his rivals, Lance is also aware that efforts like the one which delivered him to the summit of l’Alpe d’Huez in stage 10 must be limited. “You can only do efforts like that a few times in a three week Tour,” said Armstong about the tactical attack on the famed Col of the Alps. That’s the way I’ve won the Tour the last two years – first at Sestieres and then at Hautacam – but I’ve also paid the price later in the race. In 1999 I lost time to Escartin on the Solour climb and last year I suffered badly on the stage to Morzine. From here on in, I’ll be more careful with my efforts.

He can afford to mark his main overall rivals, but there is still the question of making up the lost time to the opportunists who gained enormous margins during the long break of stage eight. “It’s not only up to me to make up the time on those guys,” said Lance, referring to Simon and Andrei Kivilev, the two riders who are standing between him and the yellow leader’s jersey. Going into the first rest they, their gains are over 13 and two minutes respectively. But the fact that Lance took seven minutes out of Simon in today’s 32km test (and 6’07” off Kivilev’s advantage) is proof positive that their leading days are limited.

This Tour is only going to get better when it reaches the climbs of the Pyrenees Friday.