LE TOUR / Armstrong Ends Career With Seventh Tour de France Win

PARIS - Once more, and for the last time, Lance Armstrong swept into Paris today as the winner and undisputed champion of the Tour de France.

Protected by Discovery Channel teammates on his way to victory and retirement, Armstrong finished the last of 21 daily stages and mounted his final podium after a day of intermittent cold rain.

He stood there with his three children, Luke, 5, and twin daughters, Isabel and Grace, 3. Both girls wore yellow dresses to go with their father's jersey while the boy was in blue with a yellow logo.

In a brief speech after a French military band played "The Star-Spangled Banner" and the American flag was raised on the Champs-Élysées, Armstrong praised the two riders flanking him on slightly lower steps, Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich. Basso, the Italian leader of CSC from Denmark, finished second by 4 minutes 40 seconds and Ullrich, the German leader of T-Mobile from his homeland, was third, 6:21 behind.

"It's really a dream podium," Armstrong said. He called Basso "not only my rival but a special person. It's tough to race against a friend." The Italian beamed as he held his young daughter, Domitilla.

Ullrich, who has a young daughter too but broke the family atmosphere by leaving her at home, also came in for praise from Armstrong. He then thanked his teammates, team officials and a host of others. "Vive le Tour," he concluded. "Forever."

If the ceremony had a familiar ring after Armstrong's seventh consecutive victory before his immediate retirement, the concluding stage was a rarity.

Instead of the usual mass sprint finish, the 144.5-kilometer, or 90-mile, race from the suburb of Corbeil-Essonnes north into the capital was won in a surprise breakaway by Alexandre Vinokourov, a Kazakh with T-Mobile.

He sped away from the 154 other riders with three kilometers to go on the eighth and final circuit on the Champs-Élysées. Registering his second daily victory in this 92nd Tour, Vinokourov easily held off the chasing pack and the two riders nearest him, Bradley McGee, an Australian with Française des Jeux, and Fabian Cancellara, a Swiss with Fassa Bortolo.

The victory gave the Kazakh 20 bonus seconds, enabling him to move into fifth place over Levi Leipheimer, the American leader of Gerolsteiner, by just that margin. Earlier, Vinokourov picked up six bonus seconds in an intermediate sprint, with Leipheimer second, gaining four seconds, as his teammates failed to help him by swarming over the line ahead of the Kazakh.

"Wow," Armstrong said when he greeted Vinokourov after the stage.

The winner was timed in 3 hours 40 minutes 57 seconds, a speed of 39.2 kilometers over roads made treacherous by the rain.

Among other crashes, two of Armstrong's teammates and bodyguards, George Hincapie and Yaroslav Popovych, went down just before the race reached Paris and Armstrong had to slither around them, nearly running over Hincapie.

As is the custom, the opening part of the final stage was marked by general hilarity and conversations in the pack. Armstrong even shared a Champagne toast en route with his Discovery Channel team director, Johan Bruyneel, who was driving a car. Neither did more than clink glasses.

Once the hijinks were over, the race turned serious in Paris, with frequent attacks and careful bike handling on the wet cobblestones of the broad Champs-Élysées.

There was a lot at stake even if the final overall victory was not. The fight for the green points jersey was not settled until the finish, with Thor Hushovd, a Norwegian with Crédit Agricole, first, Stuart O'Grady, an Australian with Cofidis, second, and Robbie McEwen, an Australian with Davitamon, third.

The climbers' jersey was won by Mickael Rasmussen, a Dane with Rabobank and the victim of two crashes and three bicycle changes on Saturday in a time trial that sank him from third place over all to seventh. Second for the white jersey with red polka dots was Oscar Pereiro, a Spaniard with Phonak.

Popovych was the top rider under 26, followed by Andrei Kashechkin, a Kazakh with Crédit Agricole.

For his labors, Armstrong won 400,000 euros, or $500,000, in addition to a handsome bowl just like the six others at home in Austin, Tex.

Factoring in prizes for his days in the yellow jersey, three individual stage victories, including the time trial on Saturday that Armstrong won, and first place in the team time trial, Discovery Channel earned 545,640 euros to be distributed among riders, but not the leader, and team workers. That contrasted with the lowest haul among the 21 teams, 9, 310 euros for Euskaltel.

Armstrong took no part in the duel at the finish, coasting over his final line with a smile on his face as a crowd estimated at half a million watched.

His time for the 3,593 kilometers that were covered in three weeks was 86 hours 15 minutes 2 seconds, a speed of 41.6 kilometers an hour. If that seems high considering the many mountains transited, the riders were sometimes pushed by strong tailwinds, the roads are often resurfaced before a stage and bicycles are constantly being improved.

Although this was Armstrong's seventh triumph in the world's toughest bicycle race, it was in many ways, as he has said, just more icing on the cake. His sixth victory last year broke the tie he was in with four other dominators: Jacques Anquetil, a Frenchman; Eddy Merckx, a Belgian; Bernard Hinault, another Frenchman; and Miguel Indurain, a Spaniard.

They were the Tour stars of the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's. This new century has belonged to Armstrong, who was stricken in 1996 with testicular cancer that spread to his lungs and brain, underwent chemotherapy and, after nearly two years away from the sport, began his comeback in 1998.

The next year he won his first Tour de France. Now he has won his last one.

"There was nothing on the line this year, no history, no record, no financial reward, just a promise," he said Saturday, explaining his participation. When Discovery Channel signed on as sponsor for three years this season, replacing United States Postal Service, Armstrong promised to ride the Tour one more time.

As for his retirement, he said, "Absolutely no regrets." [AP/SAMUEL ABT]