Tour de France: After a day of rest, the stage is set for Lance

I asked Hunter if yesterday's results meant his teammate, Botero, was stronger than Armstrong.

"Not at all," he replied. "It's totally different. And Armstrong will soon demonstrate that no one can match him in the climbs."

We are not too far from the hometowns of Cyrano de Bergerac and D'Artagnan. It's 85 to 90 degrees. The riders have 1,200 miles to go. And 28 major mountains to climb.

No matter what the current standings say, Lance Armstrong is the Tour's leader. The rest of the world is the peloton.
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Stage 10
France gets a win; Halgand takes Pau
McEwen takes over green jersey

The top postions remain unchanged after today's race.

Overall after 10 stages
1. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Sp), ONCE, 36:25:35.
2. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal, at 00:26.
3. Joseba Beloki (Sp), ONCE, at 01:23.
4. Serhiy Honchar (Ukr), Fassa Bortolo, at 01:35.
5. Santiago Botero (Col), Kelme, at 01:55.
6. Andrea Peron (I), CSC-Tiscali, at 02:08.
7. David Millar (Gbr), Cofidis, at 02:11.
8. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), Credit Agricole, at 02:15.
9. Raimondas Rumsas (Lit), Lampre, at 02:22.
10. Tyler Hamilton (USA), CSC-Tiscali, at 02:30.

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The coach's perspective: Waiting for the moment

Today's blistering pace (52 kph for the first two hours of racing) is going to affect everyone's preparedness for tomorrow's mountain stage. Much of Stage 10 was ridden faster than the team time trial, and even in the draft, 50+ kph is a hard pace to maintain. ONCE spent a long time sitting on the front of the peloton this afternoon, which is beneficial to Lance and the Postal Service.

Regardless of how much work ONCE did today, the team will be aggressive tomorrow on the Col d'Aubisque and La Mongie. Several men will be anxious to fire the first shot in the battle for climbing supremacy.
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Lance Armstrong is still the man on everyone's lips as the leading contender for the overall victory. He thrives in hard conditions, and he finds strength from being put in desperate situations. While the yellow jersey gives its wearer strength, seeing it on anyone else's back gives Lance incredible motivation.

Lance is an intense individual all the time; it is part of his personality. The intensity he displays during the hardest parts of the Tour de France is frightening. He will carefully choose his moment to unleash his climbing power, but no one will fail to notice when that moment comes.
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Stage 11 starts in about an hour and a half. The preliminaries are over — let the games begin.