Head to the hills

Overall leader faces new challenges in next stages

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Posted: Monday July 12, 1999 04:20 PM

Lance Armstrong is not worried about winning mountain stages, but would like to keep the yellow jersey throughout. AP

LE-GRAND-BORNAND, France (Reuters) -- Lance Armstrong emerged as favorite to win the Tour de France at the end of its first week through the flatlands of northern France, but the American faces a new challenge as the race takes to the mountains on Tuesday.

The crucial time trial in Metz on Sunday gave some indication as to the real form of the Tour favorites, with Armstrong and Swiss Alex Zuelle looking a little fitter than Spain's Abraham Olano.

But with the first passes in the Alps on the 213-km ninth stage between Le-Grand-Bornand and Sestriere, climbers will claim the leading role.

The Italian ski resort which will host the Alpine events at the 2006 winter Olympics has become a monument to Italian cycling thanks to the victories of Fausto Coppi in 1952 and Claudio Chiappucci in 1992.

Unfortunately for Italian fans, the man they would have wished to triumph in Sestriere is not on the Tour.

Marco Pantani last year humbled the rest of the bunch in the climbs and his absence leaves the race for the King of the Mountains jersey a very open one.

Ivan Gotti, who won the Giro after Pantani was stopped for failing a dope blood test, would be an ideal winner in Sestriere, but the Italian, possibly the best climber in the world after Pantani, may have to help his French team mate Richard Virenque.

For Virenque, four times winner of the best climber's classification, the second Alpine stage to L'Alpe d'Huez on Wednesday will also be an important test of credibility.

"At first I will try to follow in the mountains," Virenque said. "Then we'll see who are the real favorites. You mustn't forget I entered the Tour the worst prepared rider of all."

The Frenchman was allowed the take part at the last minute after an initial ban from the organizers because he was thrown out for doping last year. Virenque has always denied taking banned substances.

Victory at L'Alpe d'Huez, a feat no Frenchman has achieved since Bernard Hinault in 1986, would add to Virenque's prestige especially as the last two stages there were won by Pantani.

Among the other riders expected to do well in the mountains are Spaniard Fernando Escartin, fifth overall in 1997, and Swiss Laurent Dufaux, back in great form after his mishaps with Festina last year.

But climbers, who have won the Tour only twice in the last 40 years thanks to Lucien Van Impe in 1976 and Pantani last year, are not favored to win in Paris this year.

The main question mark is over the current strength of all rounders such as Armstrong, Zuelle and Olano.

The American Tour leader is not too worried.

"Climbers will climb and they will try to win stages," he said. "But I don't have to try and win a stage. In the next few days I have to ride a strong race and keep the yellow jersey."

More than Gotti or Virenque, Armstrong said he feared Zuelle, even though the Swiss lies seven minutes behind him overall.

"I'm sure he'll attack in the mountains. In 1995, he was nine minutes behind Miguel Indurain and still finished second," Armstrong said.

As for Olano, badly beaten in Sunday's time-trial, he now has a simple strategy.

"Me, Zuelle and Dufaux, we have to attack. In the mountains gaps grow fast," he said.

 

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