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Originally posted by NotFromHere
NARBONNE, France, July 16 — They were hoping to steal Lance Armstrong’s show — but halfway through the Tour de France, they are no longer on the bill. Italians Gilberto Simoni and Stefano Garzelli, Colombian Santiago Botero and Spaniard Aitor Gonzalez will have to wait another year to be in the Tour limelight.
TO MAKE MATTERS worse, they even got a stinging rebuke from the record-chasing American.
“Now Gilberto Simoni knows that the Giro is not the Tour de France,” Armstrong, the four-times champion, said about this year’s Giro winner.
“Now Aitor Gonzalez knows that the Vuelta is not the Tour de France,” he added of the Tour of Spain champion.
“Thay both may be a leading factor in this race. But not this year,” the American insisted, without mercy.
Impressive in the Giro mountains, Saeco team leader Simoni had looked an intriguing challenger for Armstrong before the Tour began on July 5, even claiming that there were no real climbers in the Tour start list. “To say things like Simoni said was an insult to Tour riders and an insult to the Tour,” Armstrong said.
Garzelli, second in the Giro which he won in 2000, pulled out with acute bronchitis before stage 10. But he had also lost far too much ground to be a threat.

The talkers never win. And, continuing the TdF discussion, Allessandro Pettachi truly seems to be the heir to Super Mario. The only thing missing were the zebra-stripped shorts.