Tour's 20th stage, and Armstrong's next-to-last ever, gets underway

Jul 23, 2005, 9:10 GMT

St. Etienne, France - The 20th stage of the 2005 Tour de France, and the penultimate race in Lance Armstrong's career, got underway Saturday in the city of St. Etienne.

Because the Tour's final stage on Sunday is traditionally a victory march for the winner and is usually decided in a mass sprint, Saturday's 55.5-kilometre individual time trial is also the 33-year- old Armstrong's last chance to grab a stage victory.

The six-time champion has not yet won a stage in this year's Tour, but on Friday he promised to "go all out" for the win, despite having a comfortable lead in the overall standings. In the 2000 Tour, Armstrong also came into the last time trial without a stage win, and promptly won it.

The last rider to win the Tour de France despite not winning a single stage was fellow American Greg Lemond in 1990. However, Armstrong has won a total of 10 Tour de France time trials, and is widely considered the favourite to win the stage.

Armstrong will be the last rider to race in the stage, which will be opened by the rider currently in last place in the standings, Iker Flores of Spain.

Armstrong's main rival in the stage is German Jan Ullrich, an excellent time trial rider who will be trying to make up 2:12 minutes on Mickael Rasmussen of Denmark to overtake him for third place in the general standings.

Currently, Ivan Basso of Italy is in second place, 2:46 minutes behind Armstrong, with Rasmussen 3:09 adrift and Ullrich in fourth at 5:58.