Armstrong hits the wall

Lance Armstrong had a day to forget in the Alps, losing 12 minutes to his major rivals. There were those who were quick to claim his time at the top is over. Three crashes hardly helped the seven-time Tour de France winner, but the Guardian's William Fotheringham feels it is the end of the line for the Texan.

Most of the Tour's greats are forced to endure a moment of brutal clarity, when they are reduced to the ranks of mere mortals. For some a particular time and place always denotes the point where they have visibly taken on un Tour de trop.

After Lance Armstrong's disastrous showing today the next 13 days will show whether or not signing up for one last Tour at the age of nearly 39 was the two-wheeled equivalent of the boxer who cannot resist one final bout and ends up sprawling on the canvas after two rounds.

Halfway up the Col de la Ramaz, a sign offered leisure cyclists the chance to take part in a circuit of the rock of hell. The heat beating off the asphalt definitely had an infernal quality about it, and the steepest part of the climb leading to a series of tunnels and avalanche shelters through a rocky gorge marked the start of Armstrong's personal purgatory as he slipped inexorably off the back of the group that included all those with pretensions to a high placing overall.

The group still numbered some 35 and that made the point: the seven-times winner was about to have the worst day he has endured in 12 Tour starts.

The Texan's mentor, Eddy Merckx, lost his mystique in 1977, when he rode up the Col du Glandon in a daze due to stomach trouble. Miguel Indurain was never the same again after blowing up at Les Arcs in 1996. For those places and dates, read Armstrong, Col de la Ramaz, 2010.

Don't get carried away
Great Britain crushed Turkey to keep themselves out of tennis bottom tier but Matt Dickson, writing in the Daily Mail, feels it would be folly to get carried away.

Despite the encouraging signs of the past fortnight, the report card for British tennis over the past seven weeks of frenetic activity sees it registering around five-and-a-half out of 10, with the message that it could still do much, much better.

One of the more impressive aspects of a promising Davis Cup captaincy debut for Leon Smith was that, in the wake of GB’s 5-0 win over a weak Turkey team at Eastbourne, he clearly recognises that this is just the start of a long road.

Only those with selective amnesia will forget that last month we were talking about Britain’s worst ever Wimbledon, some sketchy performances prior to that and confusion over wildcards.

Yet there is definitely a more positive air blowing through the sport, a result of encouraging junior results and the thoroughly professional dispatching of the Turks.

By the time of the next Davis Cup tie — not until early March next year when further progress back towards the World Group can be made — things are likely to have improved a little further.

The early signs are that Smith is a good appointment. What he did to stop the rot in the Davis Cup was shrewdly assemble four of the British game’s most solid citizens — James Ward, Jamie Baker, Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski — to do the job.

Compared to what John Lloyd had to put up with in the last five defeats it was different.

There was no worrying about walking on eggshells around Andy Murray or stress about his highly strung relationship with his brother, or about whether Alex Bogdanovic would implode under pressure, or about Dan Evans’s off-court activities.

For British tennis, the set-up was refreshingly free of neurosis. Moreover, the coaching staff was largely young and British; people who care deeply about the state we are in. Baker praised their ‘meticulous’ approach.

That said, even the Turks’ No 1 player Marsel Ilhan was very disappointing, and to make serious headway in the competition it is all going to come back to Murray Jnr and unearthing a second high-class singles player.

It is tolerable for Murray to sit out the Davis Cup at this very low level, (although he will have to play at least once in the competition in the next two years to make himself eligible for the London Olympics).

He ought to be a bit more sensitive, however, about keeping his head down when he is sitting out ties.

If he is meant to be resting then fine, but seeing him pop up on things like James Corden’s excruciating World Cup show and fulfill sponsor commitments