Lance Armstrong VS Jan Ullrich

Whilst everyone has an opinion on Lance after his extremely controversial doping confession, this is a series about exciting moments that kept me (and no doubt viewers) the edge of their seats at the time of racing. In no way do I condone the doping that took place or his behaviour to those who challenged him, however the Lance era was the year I got hooked on cycling and hard to ignore this moment.

The year was 2005, it was Lances final tour and he was wanting to extend his (now deleted) 6 consecutive wins in the tour to 7. Too long to be considered a prologue at 19km this was sure to be a good tester and some decent time gaps could open up early on. Lance was due to be last out of the starting block, starting only 1 minute ahead of him was his all time arch rival Jan Ullrich. Jan was infamous for turning up to the tour slightly out of shape, this year seemed no different however he was fresh off a win in the TT at the Tour de Swiss and a 3rd overall, so at least on paper seemed to have good form. It looked like it could be a difficult one to pick.

Jan took off, pushing his massive gear he was well known for and Lance followed him into the start house shortly after. Lance looked in form and ready to start his campaign as he rolled down the ramp. He pulled his foot out of this pedal as he was accelerating but composed himself quickly. It only takes a few kilometers before you can get a guage on the riders performance, and todays first glimpse at Lance's performance came at 9.6km into the stage where he was only 3sec off Dave Zabriskie, a surprise to many, Jan did not appear on the top 10 at the checkpoint. People were wondering what  was happening with Jan.

After the checkpoint there was an aerial shot of the two rivals, with Lance breathing down Jan's neck and he had him in his sights. A few more seconds passed and Lance sped by, clearly surprising Jan who took one look at him and realized his tour was pretty much over. Lance continued his storming ride toward the finishing line, expecting to win. Unfortunately for him his compatriot David Zabriskie had ridden the fastest Tour de France stage on record at an average speed of 54.676kph and held the Yellow Jersey until his unfortunate crash in the TTT a few days later.

As always, watch the video below! Enjoy!