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| |  Saturday, 6 July, 2002, 19:32 GMT 20:32 UK Dominant Armstrong happy to sit back Armstrong beat Jalabert by two seconds Lance Armstrong insists he will not be trying to defend the yellow jersey all the way to Paris after blazing to victory in Saturday's Tour de France prologue in Luxembourg. The three-time defending champion started in 189th and last position and scorched round the seven-kilometre street circuit in nine minutes 8.78 seconds. The 30-year-old shattered Frenchman Laurent Jalabert's time by two seconds to snatch the leader's yellow jersey for Sunday's first road stage. But he admitted that his US Postal team would wait until the next time trial - on stage nine - before launching another attack on the general classification.
"I don't know any team that can defend the yellow jersey for three weeks," said Armstrong, who refused to start in yellow as champion, saying it was a different race. Armstrong last won the prologue in 1999, when he stormed to his first overall victory. But since then has seen Britain's David Millar and France's Christophe Moreau take the honours. The Texan has already won big stage races this season - the Midi Libre and Dauphine Libere - but he was beaten each time in the time trials.On the damp streets of Luxembourg, however, he was determined to lay down the gauntlet. "I saw the sun come out just when I started, maybe it was a sign," said Armstrong, who has now won 12 Tour de France stages, including seven time trials. "It's a very special race, I love it. It gives me special motivation," he said.
"My tactics on the Tour are to go as fast as I can, all the time. "It was a beautiful course, very technical, very bumpy. I thought it was a good one to win." This year Millar finished in fifth, while Moreau was well down the field in 40th. But the former world time trial champion Jalabert, last year's King of the Mountains winner, was happy enough with second. "I was beaten by the best rider in the Tour so I have no regrets," he said. | |
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