Throwback to Stage 18 of the 1995 Tour de France, where a young Lance Armstrong broke away about 15 miles from the finish and paid tribute to Fabio Casartelli who died days earlier in Stage 15, as he crossed the finish in Limoges. At the time, Armstrong’s stage win and tribute to his teammate was both touching and appropriate, and something that was sorely needed by the team in the aftermath of the accident.
In memory of Fabio Casartelli (16 August 1970 – 18 July 1995).
Transferred from a VHS recording of the 1995 Tour de France coverage on ESPN. The recording was made on July 21, 1995.
And now they’re coming up towards the top of the climb of the coat nerve and the pressure is on but nobody’s spinning it out at all. Feligi it was who went over the top there but they haven’t used this as a springboard because there are too many watchful eyes in this breakaway I think Paul and they’re just going to keep a nice steady rhythm and share the pace for a bit longer yet. Well, but Armstrong in fact has waited and he’s decided now is the time to go and he’s gone right down the right hand side of the road as he looked across to see that there was no reaction from the main group and that is a superb attack by the man from Plano in Texas now residing in Austin. So Armstrong has decided to go. He waited till he just tipped over the top of the coat of Vil nerve. He’s leaving himself a fair way to go alone. And now are the bunchs going to organize themselves in the chase? Because we’re looking at the main escape of the day. It’s pretty safe now that this group will not be caught. And Armstrong now is trying to thin it out. This initial attack, well, if he has to go alone, I think he’s quite prepared to. I don’t think he’d be too worried if if one or two riders reached him to give him a hand. Definitely not. The back the gap over the main field there, in fact, was 5 minutes. And this is the moment when everybody was just sitting up over the top of that climb and Lance Armstrong just looked over his shoulder, saw that everyone was disinterested, thought, “Now’s the time for me to have a go. If I can just surprise them we get 20 or 30 seconds. That might be just what I need. And so Lawrence Armstrong of the Motorola team now rushing off into the distance. And I have to say there is no real reaction here from the back of this group as our camera gets up to the front. The one man is trying to go clear. Looks like Lawn Duo. Well, that is the thing that’s going to happen now because there are 11 riders left in this back group. Everyone now will be thinking about saving a little bit of energy for the attacks that are going to come afterwards. Armstrong caught them all napping just at the top of that climb the coatville nerve. Superb move and you know he’s flying along at the moment. He’s got it in his big gear which is probably for the connoisseurs a 12 to sprocket at the moment and you can see how he’s actually throwing those gears round riding at something like 35 mph. We’ve got a chance here to get an initial time check. It’s only about 12 seconds but you can see there’s no organized chase behind and that’s what Armstrong won’t know but we’ll hope for. and the Martin Dembaka. There is nothing here, Paul. Debbaca’s freewheeling and saying, “Well, somebody else can come and do the work. It’s going to take a little while, I think, to organize something here.” Well, one man who should take up the chase pretty quickly, I would think, is Ralph Yemen, and that may well be who is at the front at the moment. There are two men from the MG squad in this breakaway. One of them is a fast finisher, Maximillian Xandry. So, the Swiss rider will have to do the work and try and claw his way back to the Flying Texan. And there is a lot of dead wood now in this breakaway. As we go back up to the leader, Armstrong now pedaling on his own, leaving himself a fair way to ride, but not an impossible distance by any means. We’ve all seen how Lance has improved his riding against the watch on his own, and now he’s got a chance to show us again that he can hold them all off. Well, this is a man who’s determined to get away from the rest of that group there. 11 men are chasing him down at the moment. 26 kilometers to go. So that’s something like round about 14 miles is an awful long way on your own. But Armstrong’s face here has decided that that’s what he wants to do. He wants to go away to Limoj and try and win on his own. So Armstrong has flown the coupe and we are about 26 km from the finish now. Can he make it? We’ll take a break. 16 miles now to the finish of stage 18. Lance Armstrong left the other members of the breakaway group in the dust with that move back at the Cot Velner Nurve. He leads that chase group now by almost a minute. And there’s the rest of the breakaway. They’re now swinging into the straight for the sprint as well. And they’re probably going to spin it out, but none of them are going to challenge, of course, the lead of this race on points, Lawrence Jalabar, who’s back in the bunch. He will take the uh that green jersey to Paris. The managers come over the top there. It looks as though it’s Masimilliano Ley and he’s taken second place. Strangely enough, Ralph Yeman tried to jump across on his own to get up there to Lance Armstrong, but they’re not organizing themselves. If they want to pull him back carefully and slowly before the finish, they have to get four or five riders working equally together. But you see Masimilliano Ley, he’s done his turn. He swings off and there’s no insistence by Ralph Yemen on the MG squad to chase him down. Well, I find this amazing. But you know, Paul, there’s these riders are just not organized. They don’t seem to want to chase Lance and and I don’t think that they are trying to let the American go on this occasion. It’s not a case now of what we’ve seen this last couple of days. That’s definitely not the case. But the problem is that with those 11 riders, there are all very good riders there. And the problem now is they’re playing that game of poker, which very often happens in a professional cycle race. They don’t want to do too much work. They want to leave one of the other team to do that work. There’s the MG team again, but they’re always trying to jump across a g alone and they won’t work together. And that is a negative sign for the group, but a positive sight for Lance Armstrong. There’s the race director’s car going through now. That means the gap is growing. He’s going up to join the leader on the road, the American Lance Armstrong. This is Max Chiandry who’s going to feel a little bit robbed here because he is the man that would have been favorite in that group to take the sprint finish. He’s already won one stage of this race, but now he’s finding very few fins to take up the chase after the American. strange as well because you know we have two riders from the Festina squad here as well and I would have thought that they would be a couple of teams there who would work together. They have two men. MG have two men. If they could organize themselves then they could bring themselves back to Arsenal. Now it’s Denbacha trying to lead away on his own again. It’s a lone rider trying to get into contact over the top of the last climb there. The gap for the main field was 5 minutes and 5 seconds. So they’re a long way behind. And a quick look at the clock there. Lance Armstrong doing 40 m an hour at the moment. You just saw that, Paul. That’s amazing. Well, Armstrong is tied. All right, he’s going slightly downhill at the moment, but 40 mph isn’t bad. And they’re not going to pull much out of lance if he keeps that up. You may have seen the yellow car trying to force his way through the breakaway here with the spare bicycles on. That is the neutral service car. Uh, which indicates that Lance may be building up a lead of around about 30 seconds now because obviously that car has been told to try and go forward to the leader. Again, I think it’s the MG squad coming to the front there. That will probably again be the Swiss rider, Yur Rolf Yeman, trying to chase. Yandre has now come to the back. The rider on the left hand side with the blue shorts and also Martin Dbacha, number 123. He tried to get across to Armstrong. The effort was a long violent one, but not enough to make any inroad into the lead that Lance Armstrong is building up at the moment. We’re still waiting for official confirmation off the race radio of that gap, but it must be hovering around about the 15 20 second mark. Well, we can find out. Paul, let’s have a look from the helicopter as we go back. It is a good gap now. I would say at least 20 seconds. Ah, confirmed. 20 seconds it is. But you know, Armstrong now showing us he’s come through the mountains this year for the first time in his career. He’s come through them very, very well indeed. He’s still feeling good. Well, he is. And I think he’s already well on the way to achieving one of his objectives of this year’s tour to France, and that was to get up to Paris. He wanted to do that. He came twice before to feel the atmosphere, to find out what the race was all about. This year, he said, “I want to get to Paris. I want to finish the tour of France, but he has one other objective, too, and that is to win a stage. Well, he’s on course for that now, Phil. He is also on course to create a whole lot more cycling fans in the States with a performance like this. Lance Armstrong lead stage 18 about 10 mi ago. He pulled off a power move that no one else in this sport could have done. He has exploded into a 50-second lead ahead of the chase group. Phil, and just look at this now. Lawrence Armstrong is now within 10 miles from the finish. The Motorola team car up alongside him driven there in fact by Henny Kyper Paul as he now shouts and I know what Henny will feel like as he shouts Lance Armstrong towards the line. And strangely enough, the passenger in the team car there was no other than Mike Plant the organizer of the tour du who was the race that this year Lance Armstrong won for the third year in sorry to say he won it after three years of trying. But Armstrong is inspired now. And it’s not just the competition of the Tour of France. He wants this stage for many, many reasons. And look at his face now. Rider number 111 is powering towards the finish. The last check we had was almost a minute on the 11 riders he has left. And there’s been plenty of tax from there, but the bunch has gone right out of it. 6 and 1/4 minutes. Phil, let’s update the highlights with the Michelin race summary. 117 riders started today’s 103 mile scorcher. At the halfway point, a 12-man breakaway, including Lance Armstrong, quickly built up a four-minute lead. With 18 miles to go, at top the tour’s final climb, Lance Armstrong exploded away from the group and now has a 50-second lead on the chase group that numbers 11. But it doesn’t look like they’re going to give up, Phil. And now we have two riders who have gone from the front of the group. And this is Andrea Tappy leading Martin Demba. The gap is 49 seconds. But that’s bad news for Armstrong because these two riders will work extremely well together. He still looks as if he’s riding strong and riding fast at the moment, but that isn’t too good with two men chasing. So Armstrong continually calling up his team car, by the way, as if he wants a little bit of moral support just to tell him he’s going good. But he is going good, but he’s having to hold the riders off at such a very fast speed today. And he can’t take any any rest at all. He’s going to have to keep the pressure on round about 30 mph. But time is running out. He hasn’t got to suffer that much longer. These two riders, this is Andrea Taffy at the front, number 49, wrote a superb Harry Rubé this year. He’s helped by Martin Deb back at a man robbed of the tour to France last year when he had a problem with his family just before the start of the tour. He working extremely well together behind the group of nine riders are starting to come back to them. This is going to be a pursuit all the way to the finish now. It is. And these two, you know, may not hold off that chase group because there have been numerous attacks from it, including Max Chandry, who’s put in many attacks to try and get away. Tappy has not played much of a part in consolidating this breakaway. He’s hung around at the back and the time so too had Lance Armstrong had a word with him, I think, but now he’s got to the front, but he’s going away again. It was 49. He’s pulled out six more seconds. Well, he really is doing the ride of his life at the front there. Armstrong, I think, being pushed on by an awful lot of emotion. It’s been a very hard time for him over the last couple of days. Six miles to go for number 111 in the red and blue at the front, Lance Armstrong. Paul, what a way it would be to end this week if he could win this stage today after what he and his team have been through. Well, probably topped his first ever stage win back in 1993. Stage nine of the 93 tour in the city of Verdon. In a bold move and a sprint to the finish. At the time, Armstrong was unknown. At the line, he beats Raul Alkala. He would add to what would become perhaps the best ever rookie season in the history of cycling. Look at him now. Hot young American, hat-on backward, leading stage 18. Lance Armstrong leads the Chase Group by 55 seconds. 5 miles to go to the finish. Moment ago, we showed you his first ever true to Front stage win in 93. Well, last Saturday on the road into Rebell after having led the field for 130 mi, he found himself in a fight with a more experienced rider. Armstrong now begins to make his move. Uchov goes immediately, but goes right to the center of the road. Armstrong holding the back wheel of Uchukov very shortly. Armstrong is going to have to kick, but I don’t think he’s got it. Uchukov has everything. Uchov takes it on the line. Well, here we are 6 days later. This time, no Uchov. Just a great move by Lance about 15 mi ago when they were all relaxing and turning off on the top of the climb. He flew down the road and was out of sight before they really got their thoughts together. And that was a fine piece of tactic. An excellent move. He waited, looked across. Everybody had just ridden up that climb. I think all these riders had expected an attack to come on that climb and when they got to the top, they let out a big sigh of relief. hadn’t come and that is the moment that Armstrong decided to make his move when they were all just leaning for their bottles just looking for a drink and bang there he was and the gap was immediate. Well, Armstrong is clear. The group by the way is only 10 seconds behind the two pursuers now. So, I think they’re going to be swept up and they’ll be then all together in pursuit of Armstrong once again. Here they are. Martin Denbecka of the TVM team, former amateur champion of Holland and Andrea Tappy. Martin Debbecca really has come along over the last couple of years. We said a couple of times he did finish second in the tour to Lavir last year, having held the yellow jersey all the way through until the final stage when it came to the time trial and he lost it there. inside the town of Lumoge now and it won’t be very long before we get another time check on Lance Armstrong who last time check was 1 minute and 15 seconds clear but the two riders in between really aren’t making any headway on this chasing group now but in fact the chasing group themselves led by Federati at the moment seem to have slowed down a little bit as well Maxandry wants the others to come through and do some of the work but they’re not organized now Johan Brun in the pink hasn’t really bothered to contribute much at all to this breakaway and Ley who’s second from the back of this line. Well, he seems to have lost a little bit of enthusiasm as well. So, this is all airing well for Lawrence Armstrong. His hat has already gone into the win now. He’s down to hanging on and getting the stage win. And I think you know, Paul, I’m beginning to feel he might just do it. I think so. The last check over the race radio is 1 minute over the two chasers. 1 minute 10 over the remainder of that group that he was with. But you get a chance here to look at Lance Armstrong’s position. As we flick back to the two chases, in fact, he has changed. If we go back to him, you’ll see he’s much more powerful. He’s a lot further back on his saddle and he looks more aerodynamic than he used to. Armstrong has changed a lot this year. He’s moved up another echelon. And don’t forget, he came into the sport. He was a world champion before he could blink. And now he’s had to really learn the art of cycle racing, long distance. Now he’s under the 5 kilometers to go banner at a stage of the tour to France. He’s never been at before. He’s always given up before now. Now he’s going to go to Paris. That was his first ambition and he’s going to go with a bonus. I think that of a stage win as well. I think that’s exactly what he’s going to do. 1 minute with 5 km to go when he’s flying along as he is at the moment. He will get extra force. You can feel the stage victory and then all the pain goes away from you. This is Andrea Ferigato behind in the yellow jersey. The Zedi trying to get across to the two men in front of him. And now you can see that group of riders starting to split. Everybody now thinking about their own chance of making a good placing on this stage. But at the front, Lance Armstrong from Austin in Texas is doing the ride of his life. Martin Dembaka still working away with Andrea Taffy. A rider by the way I first met when he was winning a stage at the old Tour of Americas in the United States down in Fort Lauderdale. And he was unknown then, but he certainly isn’t unknown now. He’s on the top map eight team and he’s having a great season. 115 I think it said on the blackboard. We almost knocked him off there. 5 km to go for the two chasers now. Armstrong still tapping out the rhythm, still hanging on in there and still holding on. He’s a kilometer in front of the pursuers. Well, that kilometer is probably something like 1 minute, 1 minute 10 seconds on the road like this cuz these riders are doing approximately 35 m an hour at the moment. And Armstrong still not weakening, still finding the energy to keep pushing those pedals around. He’s been at the front now for something like 16 miles. Just 2 miles to go and he’s going to take a wonderful stage victory. He’ll have a lot of time to think this time. He didn’t have to try and outsprint anybody else. He’s on his own. And you can see on his left sh shoulder there, the black band, which is in respect for Fabio Casatelli, who passed away just a couple of days ago. Stage 18. Lance Armstrong’s lead on these two. 55 seconds, but there is still a final climb to the finish line. That with just under one mile to go. But I don’t think Lance when he gets inside that 2 km banner is going to be caught by anybody except his team car. Looking at the way these two riders are going, you know, they’ve been riding well together, but they don’t have the same conviction. As they get closer to the finish, they will start to think about the second place. And that is when the impetus will go out of their chase. Although they do know there are nine men chasing them behind. Armstrong pegging these kilometers. Every few minutes now that is going to be 3 kilometers to go. That’s not very much more than one and a half miles for the man at the front. And the road starts to go up a little bit. Now he gets out of the saddle. He looks for the gear. He’s fighting a lot. He’s getting every last little bit of his energy out. Look at him now out of the saddle, pumping those pedals around because he feels this stage victory. He wants this stage victory. And you know, Phil, he’s going to get it. He is now, Paul. That is for sure. The main field, by the way, we don’t have much interest in them today. Is now seven minutes behind. These two riders are about to make their right turn off that section of road. Armstrong is now heading up towards the start of the little climb. It comes around about the 2 km banner, but you can see the way he’s kicking on those pedals now. This is a man full of power today and full of inspiration for the stage win. This is Tappy running at still around about a minute, minute 10 behind him. These two riders on the flat, that’s why it looked as if they’re going an awful lot faster, but in a couple of hundred meters time, they’re going to take the left turn, which will start them on the climb up here to the finish line. But Armstrong already on the finish climb. There is the banner that Armstrong went under just over 1 minute and 10 seconds ago. And Armstrong is not too far away from us. The next banner that Armstrong is going to see is probably the 1 kilome to go. The red kite that signifies 1 kilometer remains in the race. So these two now a few moments ago were still holding on to hopes of catching the American Armstrong. Now they’re holding on to hopes of holding off the chase that’s coming from the small group behind because now Lance Armstrong is heading for the 2K banner. He may have lost about 7 seconds of his lead in that last kilometer. They’ll have to go a lot quicker than that now to pull back this man. And Armstrong now beginning just to look like he’s cruising towards the finish as he makes the climb up the hill towards the line. So Lance Armstrong who started this race with so many disappointments in many ways. Then he decides to just ride to the Pyrenees and then he made his decision to finish the race. now with very little chance of a stage victory remaining has pulled something very special out of the hat today. The three riders now trying to get up to Taffy and in fact Martin Debbaca. This is Yakimov the man who finished second to Lance Armstrong in the Tour Dupont this year. On the far side there is Jean Siril Roa and there is Ferato the Telecom GB rider Telecom ZG rider in the yellow jersey number 208. And the two riders that they’ve been hunting I think they’re going to catch. They’re going to catch Denbaka and they’re going to catch Andrea Taffy as they go up now towards the 2 km to go banner. Armstrong must be hitting the red kite in the next five or six seconds and then it’s all glory to the line for him. Well, it’s been a superb end of the race here. You know, it looked as if it was an ideal course for this kind of race up and down and attacking style and that’s exactly what Armstrong has done. But he didn’t want to get away in a small group. He got beaten last time by Uchukov when they came to the line, just two men. Today he obviously decided the only way to win a stage of the tour to France was on your own which is why he leapt forward when the time came and he obviously thought about that last night when he looked at the plan and thought the coil nerve that’s exactly where I want to go and there it is the yellow coat the red kite rather 1 kilometer to go for Lance Armstrong he spins towards it now he may even spare himself a glance over his shoulder to see just how much he can enjoy this stage victory now here and he does so too in Leamos because now he knows that he’s going to win this stage. A quick check and now Andrea Ferigato behind has decided he’s not going to wait any longer. He’s setting off himself in the pursuit of Lance Armstrong, but I really believe that it’s much too late. He’s made a good move, but Armstrong still has round about 45 to 50 seconds lead over these riders now. Five of them chasing Armstrong. Ferigato has got the gap, but they haven’t got the same speed and the same conction as Lance Armstrong who’s in front on his own. There’s the kite which Armstrong has just passed under. There’s no way he’ll close that gap now. Ferato. He’s trying to be the best from the rest of the chasers today. He’s got the gap too. But this is the man that we are going to talk about. And this is the man that we are going to appreciate today because Lance Armstrong, his team has known every emotion in this tour to France. And now we’re going to remember this for a very happy one. Most definitely. He knows he’s got the victory there. A little professional move as he pulls up the zip. He’s sitting down. He’s not dying at all on this climb. He’s giving everything he’s got. He’s forcing himself. He’s getting every last little bit of energy back. He knows that he’s got the gap. He knows he’s got the stage victory very soon. He’ll see that banner which indicates about 400 meters to go and he’ll be able to savor what I think for him will be one of the sweetest victories of his career so far. It’ll be very special for everyone on the Motorola team tonight. Now, I was about to say usually conducts the orchestra when he wins and this looks like the start of it. Lance Armstrong isn’t going to worry about time gains today. He’s just going to worry about the victory for himself, for team Motorola, and for Fabio Casatelli. A superb piece of cycling by Armstrong today. This is why this rider is something special. A world champion at the first attempt and now his second stage victory in a tour to France. And he looks to the skies and he says, “Thank you.” and he crosses the line as the winner of the stage here in Lammoge. Phil, that is one of the most unselfish gestures we’ve ever seen in this sport. Start the day talking about traditions and look at Lance. He’s established a new one here today, I think. You know, in the last real chance for a non-speist to win a stage, he goes out, claims this one, comes across the finish line, and then shares it with a friend. [Music] across the finish line. What were you thinking about? Well, there’s no question what’s been on our mind for the the past three days. And I think it’s been on everybody’s mind and not that we set out to win the bike race today. We we only uh uh meant to be here and and and and uh and try to recover it. But certainly Fabio was motivating me today and I thought of him every second. Once you jumped away with 18 mi to go, it was if you were a man possessed as if nobody was going to come back to you. No, I was possessed certainly. And you thought a lot about him over the last few kilometers. I mean, it was it was super because all day the the people on the side of the road never let me forget. Not not that I was going to forget, but the people were very supportive and I didn’t there wasn’t a minute that went by that I didn’t hear poor Fabio. You know, you’ve came to this tour to France. You wanted two things before you went away. You wanted to finish to get to Paris and you wanted to take a stage of victory. You’ve almost succeeded in doing both. Wow. We’re almost finished, which is nice. And uh certainly I wanted to win the stage. I was close one day, but uh I came up short and and then we had the tragedy and and I didn’t think that uh it was going to happen because I was uh I was too devastated. Everybody was devastated and my mind was in another place. It just it all came together today. This is great. I mean, this is what we come to the tour to France for to win a race and this is what uh everybody on the team wants, you know, and so uh yeah, it’s fantastic, you I was super happy to to win today. It’s great for Lance. I think that this stage win means more than anything that we’ve ever done before. It’s a it’s a testimonial to to to Fabio. It’s a it’s it’s a a definition of who we are and what we are and what we’re all about. And the Motorola cycling team has been through a a heck of a week. And uh I think words are are not enough to describe our feelings at the at the moment. If you’re looking for a place to celebrate the American team Motorola and Lance Armstrong tonight, try Sixth Street in Austin, Lance’s hometown. Miguel Indrain congratulated Lance Armstrong today. When that happens, you know that you have arrived.
2 Comments
Poor Fabio 😢
Since Armstrong was out, I never watched again.