Tour de France: It is 15 years since Greg LeMond rode into Paris to take his third Tour without a stage win to his name, and today's challenge for Lance Armstrong - and it should be his final challenge as a professional - is to avoid emulating his fellow American by winning the time-trial around Saint-Etienne en route to what should be his seventh title.
Surprising as it may seem that Armstrong has not registered even one individual victory since finishing in Paris last year, that merely reflects his conviction that the Tour alone is worth winning and everything else can be sacrificed for the cause.
He has no other need to win today. He has taken the final time-trial in five of his six Tour wins, so it has no novelty for him, and with a 2min 46sec lead over Ivan Basso he has the race wrapped up.
However, his pride will demand it, and the Tour has seen many times in the past six years how powerful a motivator that is for Armstrong.
Today the hierarchy behind the Texan will be settled, and Jan Ullrich in particular will have his eye on closing the 2min 12sec gap that separates him from Mickael Rasmussen, and third place behind Armstrong.
If he manages it, he could achieve his seventh podium finish in eight Tours, a remarkable record of near-misses.
Whatever the outcome of his duel with Ullrich, Rasmussen is assured of the polka-dot jersey of best mountain climber, with such a big lead that he was not put under pressure by the presence of his principal challenger in the contest, Oscar Pereiro, among the quartet who fought out yesterday's stage finish.
With the peloton five minutes behind, Pereiro, the Italian Franco Pellizotti, and France's Sandy Casar were outwitted by the oldest and wiliest of the four, Ullrich's T-Mobile team-mate Giuseppe Guerini, a climber who took the Alpe d'Huez stage in Armstrong's first Tour win back in 1999.
En route to that win Guerini was knocked off his bike by a fan trying to take a photograph, but yesterday the 35-year-old had only to deal with the fact that he was the slowest sprinter of the four.
But he picked his moment well to surge clear, less than a mile from the line, as the others began to mark each other.
"They looked at each other for a moment and that was enough. I seized the moment," he said. "I've been looking for that for a long time. Realistically today was the last chance for me to win on this Tour so I wanted to give it a go.
"I was looking for the right time to make the move and go for the win and I got it right. Once I made the move, I knew it would be difficult for them to catch me and I'm delighted to have won."
With its great cathedral and vast bronze statue of the Madonna, this little town stands at the start of the Via Podiensis, one of the designated pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela.
Yesterday Le Puy was the start of the end of the Tourmen's private, one-way road of suffering and sacrifice. All those who finished yesterday should make it through to Paris.
There is only one major issue to be settled: the green jersey for best sprinter is still a three-way fight between the Norwegian Thor Hushovd and the Australians Stuart O'Grady and Robbie McEwen.
It will go to the wire, with Hushovd needing to finish no worse than five places behind O'Grady to ensure victory. Guardian Service
