Lance Armstrong still maintains the lead in the Tour de France, but only a scant 15 seconds ahead of close rival Jan Ullrich, who, I think, is the only other rider in this year's field to have won the Tour previously.

It's incredible how close this is. Think about this. They've gone about 1500 miles and are only separated by a quarter of a minute. In a 100m sprint, a spread of that same ratio wouldn't even be thousands of a second.

If you're wondering, the closest finish ever in the TdF was back in 1989, won by American Greg LeMond, the only other Yank besides Armstrong to win the Tour.

LeMond trailed frenchman Laurent Fignon by 50 seconds overall going into the final time trial in Paris. No one gave him much chance of clawing back that time in just 24.5 kilometers but the new triathlon-style handlebars were a distinct advantage as he beat Fignon by 58 seconds. After 3,285 kilometers of racing a mere eight seconds separated the two men overall. It doesn't get any more dramatic than that.

Hiopefully this year will be more of the same. Too bad I can't watch it.