Associated Press

Pau, July 18:

Lance Armstrong probably couldn’t have scripted the first two weeks of the Tour de France much better. No crashes, no dehydration, no real threat from his rivals. The American has even handled the occasional below-par showing from his teammates and come away with a comfortable lead. Now, it seems only an accident or an alarming drop in form can stop him from retiring next Sunday with a seventh straight Tour victory. He did not include his main rivals in the list of potential dangers. Italian Ivan Basso is 2 minutes, 46 seconds behind in second place, 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich trails by 5:58, and Alexandre Vinokourov by 9:38. Following on from the rest day in Pau, is one tough mountain in the Pyrenees, two other modest climbing stages, a flat stage and a time trial — Armstrong’s specialty. If Armstrong can avoid mishap in what he says will be his last Tour de France, he will ride along the Champs-Elysees next Sunday as the only cyclist to win the event seven times. He already holds the record of six wins.

With Armstrong seemingly marching toward another title, a tense subplot is developing in the race for the podium places. Ullrich, a five-time runner-up faces the possibility of another year off the podium. He is fourth, the same position he finished last year. Basso, third last year, is in second place. Surprisingly, Danish Mickael Rasmussen is 3:09 behind Armstrong in third place. Vinokourov, third in 2003, and Andreas Kloeden, last year’s runner-up, are too far back to mount a challenge this late. Armstrong was happy to concede Sunday’s 15th stage to teammate George Hincapie, who clinched his first individual stage win. Hincapie became the eighth American to win an individual Tour stage. They hugged each other after the Texan rode in more than five minutes back.