Tour de France 2010 heads into Belgium: Armstrong’s performance may be fuelled by anger

Today’s second stage of the Tour de France brought the riders from the Flemish flatlands into the hilly Ardennes in the south of Belgium. The hills are category 4 and 3 but what lacks them in height is easily compensated by the steep descents along narrow and winding slippery roads.

An early breakaway guaranteed Jerome Pineau the polka dot jersey as he won the first three category 4 climbs that puts him on top of the climbing standings. The group was splintered and it looked as the entire peloton would cross the finish line in Spa together, leaving the stage victory to the strongest sprinters.

Lance Armstrong had every reason to smile as the first stage of the Tour de France headed into Belgium. After all, he had indicated the previous day that his intention to win a record eighth Tour de France, at 38, was far more than Texan lip service.

The American, who returned from a three-year break to place third in last year’s Tour, made that clear with his fourth place in Saturday’s prologue time trial over 8.9 kilometres in Rotterdam–an effort that showed he has the form to extend his seven Tour wins.

It has long been accepted that the opening time trial indicates who can win the Tour–and who cannot.

And with Armstrong (RadioShack) finishing best of the overall Tour contenders, at 22 seconds to the Swiss winner Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank), he has proved he is a serious candidate.

Armstrong, racing in his last Tour, didn’t stop to talk at the finish line. But he later attributed his turn of form in the time trial to his work in getting fit again, rather than a return to excellence in the discipline. ”I knew I felt good, but [the good result] was more through general condition,” Armstrong said. ”The days of that being my specialty, of winning them, are in the past now. It is … there is only one more [a 52km time trial on stage 20] in my life.”

Despite his good spirits, it was also clear Armstrong’s performance had been fuelled by his anger after again being subjected to doping allegations in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal by his former teammate and friend, Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour title for doping.

Armstrong’s fiery rebuttal of Landis’s latest allegations revealed his mood, and he put that anger to good use several hours later.

One insider said Armstrong had told him that he had ”never been so motivated, nothing close”.

It was not just Armstrong’s high place that impressed, but also that his deficit was against a rider, in Cancellara, who is a time trial specialist. Cancellara, the Olympic and world champion in the discipline, clocked a winning time of 10minutes, 00.48seconds at an average speed of 53.4km/h.

”I am happy. Happy with the result, happy with the feeling–which may be more important than the result,” Armstrong said after his time trial in which he and Cancellara raced in dry and sunny weather–unlike most of the field, who had to contend with rain throughout the day.