SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For once the Tour de France has nothing on the Tour of California. Lance is back. And his following is bigger than ever.
Before Saturday’s prologue that kicked off the Tour of California, the crowd around his Astana team bus would’ve caused a traffic jam on the Champs-Elysees. People stacked up 15 deep, waiting hours to get a glimpse of Lance Armstrong merely stepping out of the bus.
Never at the Tour de France, even while winning seven straight, had Armstrong experienced a crowd like this.
“This is like waiting for Michael Jordan,” one fan was overheard saying.
We’ll see if Armstrong’s return from retirement is better than Jordan’s. In California, so far so good. Armstrong, 37 and coming off a three-year retirement, finished 10th out of 136 riders on the 2.4-mile course, only five seconds behind the 4:32 of repeat prologue winner Fabian Cancellara, who won the time trial for Switzerland in the Beijing Olympics.
Levi Leipheimer, Armstrong’s American teammate and two-time defending Tour of California champion, finished second, two seconds back, and American David Zabriskie of Boulder-based Garmin-Chipotle took third, another second behind.
But despite arguably the best cycling field gathered on American soil, the focus of the estimated 70,000 people packing the streets of downtown Sacramento was on the aging Texan.
Around the chaotic bus, grown men sat on grown men’s shoulders. A little girl sat on shoulders holding a license plate reading “LV6RONG.” Dozens wore Armstrong’s yellow Livestrong T-shirts representing his cancer foundation.
White. Black. Hispanic. Middle Eastern. Young. Old. Male. Female. If, as Armstrong says, there are two camps on whether he doped or not, the camp who believes him had set up camp next to his bus.
“This is excellent for cycling but not necessarily good for him,” said Rena Davonne, who lives a block away and sported yellow “L” and “S” earrings. “It’s good to go out when you’re on top, right?”
Yes, there is some concern on how a seven-time Tour de France winner will handle being a support rider for the likes of Alberto Cantador, the 2007 Tour de France winner, and Leipheimer. There’s also concern for how Astana director Johann Bruyneel, who directed Armstrong in all seven of his Tour wins, will juggle the egos of his three superstars.
Cantador is in the Tour of Portugal, but all three will race together in France.
“Oh, yeah. I’ve seen (Armstrong) help another rider,” said Garmin-Chipotle’s Tom Danielson, the Durango rider who took 67th, 17 seconds back. “He helped me win the Tour of Georgia in 2005. Of course he’s going to support Levi. It’s going to be good for him, too. If he has a good race, he has a good race. If he helps Levi win the Tour, then the goal is accomplished.
“It’s a win-win situation.”
Armstrong seems rejuvenated after three years of running marathons, relaxing and helping raise millions toward cancer research. Before the race, despite the autograph-happy, photo-snapping mob, Armstrong hopped on the warm-up bike with the same intensity he showed in France.
“He’s really excited,” Leip-heimer said. “He’s really paying attention to details. He’s not just going through the motions. He has that fire to race.
“It’s there, definitely.”
Whether it’s enough to win will be known this week in weather conditions that will seem more like the Tour of Alaska. He finished 29th in last month’s Tour Down Under, but for 4 1/2 minutes in cold, blustery conditions Saturday, Armstrong showed he’s still among the fastest in the world.
And just like old times Saturday, Armstrong made the podium. The Tour of California awarded him with a new “most courageous” jersey.
“It was a new sensation because I haven’t trained for efforts like that,” Armstrong said. “This is the first time I got to go as hard as I can. I wanted to be in the top 10, so I’m happy with that.”
Today the race goes from Davis to Santa Rosa, 107.6 miles that will be lined with record crowds, weather permitting.
“Amazing,” Armstrong said of the crowds. “I was surprised in Australia and I’m surprised here. People are excited, but I don’t think they’re as excited as I am.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
