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89th Tour de France - Grand Tour
France, July 6-28, 2002
2002 Tour de France journals
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Mike Tomalaris, SBS broadcaster
Nationality: Australian
Mike Tomalaris is the producer and sometimes presenter of SBS TV's Toyota World Sports, the only daily prime time sports show on Australian TV. Mike has covered the Tour de France for SBS Sport since 1996, and always brings a distinct Australian perspective to the network's coverage of the world's biggest annual sporting event.
Stage 12 - Friday July 19: Lannenezan - Plateau de Beille, 199.5 km
The team is everything
Lance Armstrong has been giving a lot of credit to his team over the last few days. But what about the man himself? How much credit is Lance giving to Lance?
There was a time when Armstrong rarely spoke about the other members of his US Posties the way he is in 2002. When he won the Tour from 1999-2001, was it a case of Lance doing all the work himself?
Well, that may have been the case.
In 2002, Lance has been blessed with a "shield" that literally "carries" him over the line. There a school of thought on the Tour that Lance does not have the explosiveness he's enjoyed in previous years, but there is no need for him to finish with a flurry as we've come to expect. The two stages over the Pyrenees were ridden like a 50 kilometre sprint by US Postal. Timing was everything. Not just by Lance, but the rest of his men in blue.
Lance may be getting a little slower, but with the likes of Rubiera, Peņa, Heras, Hincapie and Landis around him, he is still equipped with the necessary armour to carry him to a 4th consecutive Tour win.
