Armstrong outlasted at the wire

Thursday, April 21, 2005 | 9:44 a.m.

SUN WIRE SERVICES

ROME, Ga. -- Lance Armstrong's charge over the final 2.5 miles of Wednesday's Dodge Tour de Georgia stage 2 was not enough. The peloton rolled into Rome for three loops in the city center. Armstrong was surrounded by his Discovery Channel teammates on the final lap, but one by one they fell off Armstrong's side leaving him to fend off Gerolsteiner team members Peter Wrolich and Levi Leipheimer by himself.

The task proved too much as Wrolich and Prodir team member Manuel Quinziato edged Armstrong by fractions of a second. They finished in 4 hours, 46 minutes and 29 seconds.

"I passed Lance with maybe 120 meters to go," Wrolich said. "He did a lot of work the last 1,000 meters. At the end he stood alone, and it's tough to control the race from the first position alone."

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