Armstrong struggling

Lance Armstrong (Discovery Channel) was not in the best of spirits following the wet fourth stage of the Tour de Georgia, where he finished 7th at 8 seconds from winner Brian Vandborg (CSC). That kept him in eighth place overall, 1'42 down on his former lieutenant Floyd Landis (Phonak). After the stage, Armstrong commented, "I think it went pretty much the way we wanted it to go. Really freaky weather. We didn't get hailed on, it was a miracle. It went completely black like someone turned out the lights. Then the rain came."

Armstrong's feeling was, "Not great. My stomach is bothering me pretty bad." And he wasn't particularly looking forward to stage 5: "With the current conditions, not really."

On the Discovery team's performance in stage 4, Armstrong was generally satisfied: "We were aggressive. We were active. We did everything we could to win the race. Unfortunately Eki just got beat by that guy [Vandborg]. We gave it our best, and we will do it again tomorrow."

Armstrong also hinted at a Discovery Channel challenge to Floyd Landis' leader's jersey in today's 5th stage. "Floyd is very strong," Armstrong said. "He is the strongest, but he has no team. They can roll on the flats, but as soon as they go uphill, they all drop."

Also see:

Stage 4 full results, report & photos

Photo gallery