ST ETIENNE, France, July 23 - Lance Armstrong's
domination of the Tour de France has not hit the event's
popularity, its organisers said on Saturday.
"The Tour was not extremely exciting because Lance Armstrong
stunned his rivals without even winning a stage," Christian
Prudhomme told a news conference on the penultimate day of the
Tour.
"Yet did you see fewer spectators on the side of the road?
No. Have television audiences gone down? No. Armstrong
contributed to the Tour myth by helping it develop outside
France."
Armstrong is poised to win his seventh Tour on Sunday and
will then retire. His final Tour is already being seen as one of
his easiest. By overtaking Germany's Jan Ullrich in the opening
time trial in Noirmoutier, the American virtually put an end to
any suspense from the very start.
"Next year will be different. There will be suspense and
people will be even more interested," said Prudhomme.
"We're about to turn a page and we cannot be certain about
the script. We could be entering a transition phase as was the
case after Miguel Indurain or see a new generation open up with
riders like Italy's Damiano Cunego or Spain's Alejandro
Valverde.
"Or maybe his current rivals will take advantage of his
retirement to take over," he added.
Fellow Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc, who will step down
next year, said he had found this year's Tour more interesting
than the last.
"At my age, I could be blase. But I was not bored once.
There were breakaways every day and animation. We sometimes had
attacks thanks to Alexander Vinokourov, Ivan Basso and even Jan
Ullrich.
"I found it more exciting than some Tours in the 1990s in
the Indurain era or even in the times of (Eddy) Merckx and
(Bernard) Hinault when the race was locked," he said.