Riders set to tackle big climb

For the first time, bikers must climb L'Alpe d'Huez in a time trial.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
NIMES, France -- There is a sense of anticipation in the Provencal countryside. The team buses are being scrubbed. The bicycles are being tuned. And although Monday was a rest day in the Tour de France, an impatient energy pervaded the event.
The race is about to be decided. Or has it been already?
When the route for the 2004 Tour was announced last October, the date of July 21 jumped off the map. For the first time, in the race's 91st edition, an individual time trial will move up the winding face of the L'Alpe d'Huez. Cyclists will battle the clock while climbing 3,707 feet. There will be no teammates to pull them along, no peloton to protect them.
And lining the 9.6-mile route, an expected 1 million fans will be screaming at the top of their lungs.
"Going up L'Alpe d'Huez is like carrying Quasimodo on your back while he's ringing the bells of Notre Dame," Bob Roll, a former Tour participant and now a commentator for the Outdoor Life Network, said Monday. "It feels like your teeth will fall out and your eyes will bleed."
Wedged into final week
The monumental stage is wedged into the final week of the 23-day marathon, three days after the grueling Pyrenees climbs and three days before the second, often dramatic, individual time trial. It is a moment intended to both galvanize attention and determine a winner.
In October, Lance Armstrong said simply that Wednesday will be "probably the day that will decide the Tour."
Armstrong backed off that statement as the Tour drew closer, saying he believed the race may be decided earlier, in the Pyrenees. He seems to have fulfilled his revised prediction, pulling away from his closest rivals last weekend and pushing himself closer to something never before accomplished: a sixth Tour de France victory.
When the Tour directors scheduled Stage 16 on L'Alpe d'Huez, they surely envisioned Armstrong in a titanic struggle with the likes of Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, Iban Mayo, Roberto Heras and Joseba Beloki.
Withdrawls
But it has not worked out that way. Beloki and another top rider, Alexandre Vinokourov, withdrew before the Tour. Hamilton pulled out Saturday, suffering from a back problem. Mayo crashed early in the race and almost withdrew Saturday, but he reconsidered; still, he trails Armstrong by nearly 45 minutes. Heras, who left Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service team last year, also is far behind. And Ullrich, the 1997 winner and five-time runner-up, is 6 minutes, 39 seconds back of Armstrong.
Thomas Voeckler has worn the leader's yellow jersey for more than a week, but he saw his lead over Armstrong shrink from 9:35 to 22 seconds over the weekend and is not expected to stay in front beyond Wednesday. Ivan Basso, the young Italian, is considered the Texan's primary threat now.
So the drama at the crown of L'Alpe d'Huez may not be the unraveling of a mystery, but rather an anticipated coronation.
Grueling route
Whatever the outcome, the stage is likely to be one more memorable chapter in the annals of L'Alpe d'Huez. The grueling route, with its 21 switchback turns, was first included in the Tour in 1952. In 1986, Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault, teammates and rivals for the yellow jersey, left the pack and waged a legendary battle up the mountain before clasping hands at the finish line.
Armstrong had his own defining moment on L'Alpe d'Huez in 2001, first suckering the competition by pretending to struggle and then surging to overtake Ullrich. As he passed his German rival, Armstrong stared him in the eyes, a moment that has become known as The Look.
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