Home Cyclingnews TV   News  Tech   Features   Road   MTB   BMX   Cyclo-cross   Track    Photos    Fitness    Letters   Search   Forum  
Tour Home
Latest Tour News
Stages & Results
Live coverage
Map
Tour Tech
Photos
Features
Floyd Landis diary
Brad McGee diary
John Eustice diary
Mike Tomalaris diary
Podium girl gone bad
Other diaries
Tour FAQ
Le Tour 2001
Carnac
Cannondale
fi'iz:k
Giro
Litespeed
Speedplay
Extran


89th Tour de France - Grand Tour

France, July 6-28, 2002

2002 Tour de France journals

Click for larger image
TV Guy
Photo: © SBS

Mike Tomalaris, SBS broadcaster

Index to all entries

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.

Index to all entries

More Tour de France features