“OLN's "Defining Moments of the 2003 TdF"”

Tonight I watched OLN's "Defining Moments" review of the Tour de France. Approximately 35 minutes of interview with Lance Armstrong, 40 minutes of replays, and 45 minutes of commercials.

The interview wasn't very exciting, this was clearly just a chance for OLN to capitalize -- by playing a lot of ads -- on the big ratings boost they get from the Tour, but it was nice to see Phil, Paul, and Lance relaxed and joking around a little.

Two things Lance said are worth repeating (for me).

First, Phil asked him about the crash on Luz Ardiden and how he felt about the rest of the leader board waiting for him, especially Jan Ulrich. Lance replied with almost exactly the same thing I said: he watched the replay on TV that night, saw it for himself, and Jan Ulrich did NOT wait for him. They didn't slow down until Tyler Hamilton rode to the front and told them to. (I see Daniel quoted me on that story, and added some details I didn't know about... sorry I didn't see it before.) Lance actually referred to it as a "feel good moment" invented by the broadcasters.

Second... well, this isn't so much what he said, but the way he said it. He was talking about Tyler's win in stage 16 by over two minutes, and said he'd never seen anything like it. He wasn't acting (Lance is a rider, not an actor), you could tell that he was more than a little impressed with his friend's performance. (They replayed his stage victory, and it still makes me smile.)

I kept rooting for one of them to say the magic words, "super human freak," but they never did. I must have repeated it so many times that there was no point. ;-)