Lance Armstrong downplays the importance of 2024 Tour de France route: "99.9% of the time the best rider wins, no matter the route"
Cycling
Lance Armstrong gathered his usual guests for The Move, his podcast/Youtube channel where he talks about cycling, to comment on the Tour de France route. He did so with his collaborators, former teammate George Hincapie and his former sports director Johan Bruyneel.
The first thing the former US Postal rider did was to make it clear that it is difficult to do analysis today because cycling today has changed so much that it is difficult to predict what is going to happen. "Cycling is different, we don't know the sport anymore, the way it's raced, the age of the riders, it's a new cycling, it's different from yesterday...there's talk of no long time trial, no this or that, the stakes are out of competition, it's a different cycling, you have to let it flow."
Johan Bruyneel, delving into what is happening today, makes it clear that the route is not decisive: "No matter what the route is, the strongest cyclist wins the race, there are Alps twice, there are Pyrenees, it doesn't end in Paris, which means there will be fireworks in the last days, but in the end the strongest guy will win the race".
George Hincapie, getting more into the route of the 2024 Tour de France, noted that there was virtually no flat meters in the first week: "The strongest guy, like last year, is going to have to be on his toes from the first stage to the finish, there's not a straight kilometre and there's not a flat kilometre, it's all full of climbs and descents on narrow roads, which is kind of stressful for a first week of the Tour de France. The favourites are going to have to start on form."
Bruyneel emphasized the hardness of the first week: "In the fourth stage we already reach the high mountains with the Galibier, it's something unique, that will leave 10-15 riders in the overall, then on the way to the Pyrenees and again to the Alps, I've never seen the Tour going twice through the Alps, it's something unique".
Beyond the fact that it is a special Tour de France and that many may criticize whether or not there is a team time trial, or whether the stages are longer or shorter, Armstrong agrees with his colleagues that "99.9% of the time the best rider wins the Tour de France regardless of the route".
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- He is boring
leedorney08-11-2026 - To Twoje przemyślenia te bla, bla :)
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parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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