[breakingnews]

... has all but completed what looks to be his final career trip into Paris this Sunday wearing yellow for an unprecedented seventh victory.

Armstrong sits almost three minutes ahead of his nearest competitor, Ivan Basso, and has left long-time archrival Jan Ullrich (5:58 back) fighting just to make it onto the podium this weekend. Tour victory margins range from 8 seconds to something like 30 minutes; Armstrong is sitting above the average mark.

At this point, a severe crash - one that would put Armstrong on the sidelines - is pretty much the only thing stopping him from achieving his seventh win.

Beyond the obvious, today marked another tremendous day for Team Discovery (formerly the U.S. Postal Service squad) when Italian Paolo Salvodelli outlasted 16 other men in a long breakaway to take Stage 17, his first Tour de France stage victory (I believe).

His win comes on the heels of George Hincapie's brilliant ride across several brutal alpine climbs last Sunday to win his first Tour stage in 10 years of riding the race. As a dedicated Postal domestique for seven of those years, Hincapie had never left Armstrong's side until this past weekend. Even then, his original plan was to go with the attacking group and fall back to help Lance on the day's final climbs. With about a quarter of the stage to go, Discovery director Johan Bruyneel told George to put the hammer down and ride his own race.

Salvodelli's and Hincapie's victories are big because the Discovery squad has come under sharp criticism for twice leaving Armstrong by himself on difficult mountain stages (8 and 14). The second time, Armstrong independently fended off three very strong T-Mobile riders - including Ullrich - who were all considered as top contenders for the yellow jersey and eventually busted apart the group in that usual, outlandish Texan fashion.

Are they to blame? Are they not doing their jobs? How did all 8 riders managed to fall off from the lead group? But after all, it is a race, and everyone on a team needs to learn what to do when the strategy breaks down. It happens, and rather often. Fortunately Lance kicks a huge amount of ass and stepped up to every challenge that was posed those two days.

In my opinion, these two stage victories - unprecedented moves for the team during the Lance era - proves that Salvo and Hincapie are, in fact, incredible riders, and shows that they are more than just Armstrong's servants. They know how to fight, jockey and grind their way to a mountaintop finish. The team might have slipped once or twice over the past three weeks, but what makes a great squad is its remarkable leader, who picked up the pieces and carried the flag home anyway.

In short, if Lance keeps his yellow through Sunday, there's no reason to think anything but that Team Discovery is the best effin' group of riders in the world.