Armstrong vs other stars

Published : Aug 09, 2003 00:00 IST

A LOOK at Lance Armstrong's Tour de France career and how it fares against Tour legends.

Tour Wins: Five consecutive, from 1999-2003, matching Spaniard Miguel Indurain's record five straight, from 1991-1995. Three others won five but not consecutively; Frenchmen Bernard Hinault and Jacques Anquetil, and Belgium's Eddy Merckx.

Stage Wins: Armstrong has 16 — 1 in 1993, 1995, 2000, 2003; 4 in 1999, 2001 and 2002. His U.S. Postal Service team also won a time trial together this year. Merckx won a record 34 stage wins; Hinault — 28 stage wins; Anquetil — 16; Indurain — 12.

Winning Margins: Armstrong beat Switzerland's Alex Zulle by 7 minutes, 37 seconds in 1999, Germany's Jan Ullrich by 6:02 in 2000, Ullrich again by 6:44 in 2001 and Spain's Joseba Beloki by 7:17 in 2002. This year, he beat Ullrich by just 61 seconds.

The Tour record: 2:59.21, set by France's Maurice Garin in 1903, the inaugural year. The smallest margin was in 1989, when American Greg Lemond beat France's Laurent Fignon by eight seconds.

Age: Armstrong, 32 in September, first won aged 27. Since 1953, 7 riders age 31 or over have won. The oldest, Belgium's Firmin Lambot, was 36, in 1922. Indurain won his last Tour at 31; Merckx was 29 at his last win. Hinault won for the last time at the age of 30.

Participations: Armstrong was racing his ninth Tour. Joop Zoetemelk of the Netherlands holds the record: 16.

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