The Talking Laptop Gives Armstrong Sound Bytes

This should be news. Lance Armstrong doesn't talk to the press these days. He talks to somebody, presumably the Team Astana Press Secretary, who records comments onto a laptop and then said press secretary takes the laptop to the newsroom. He plays the laptop to the assembled press and they write down the comments.

Follow the link. The Times Online's Owen Slot has some worthwhile reading. "Armstrong is trying his damndest to a) start a fight and b) clamber his way up to the moral high ground. But the only suggestion that Contador has taken in any of Armstrong’s mindgames was his electric breakaway on the Arcalís climb on Friday. That was a considerable riposte, fulfilling to the letter the old cliché about letting his legs do the talking."

Yes, taking out 21 seconds in two uphill headwind kilometers was possibly the most impressive feat of any rider all Tour. He had the best riders in the world alongside him. he had a headwind, which effectively flattens a climb, and he still killed everybody.

Here's another thing to know, "Armstrong will not give an interview to The Times, and that is despite swearing that he no longer has a black list of the newspapers and journalists to whom he will and won’t speak. There are many to whom Armstrong will not speak. And so we make do with the soundbites and bombs from Philippe Maertens’ laptop."