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 Cleaned of favorites Ailing Tour de France could crown unknown rider
Posted: Monday June 28, 1999 03:29 PM
PARIS (Reuters) -- For the first time since little-known Frenchman Roger Walkowiak won the race much to everybody's surprise in 1956, the Tour de France takes off this week with no former winner at the start. The last three winners -- Italy's Marco Pantani, Germany's Jan Ullrich and Denmark's Bjarne Riis -- all decided not to contest the Tour, which starts on Saturday, encouraging speculation that the man crowned on July 25 in Paris could be an underdog, as Walkowiak was in his time. The 1956 Tour marked a crossroads in the event's history with the end of the reigns of Italian Fausto Coppi and Frenchman Louison Bobet, the riders who launched the trend of medically assisted training. Ironically, what the organizers hope for this year is to see doctors play a minimal role in the outcome of the race. To restore the image of their sport, Tour promoters are probably looking for a rider of the same caliber as Walkowiak, who won as the leader of a regional team, or maybe even of Roger Chaussabel, who finished last 43 years ago. Chaussabel said at the time: "I'm not fast. I'm not a climber. I'm not a sprinter. In a way I'm an all-rounder, hence a man of the Tour." At least Chaussabel could not be suspected of doping, unlike some of the riders of 1999. Since the Tour was rocked by one of the biggest doping scandals in history last year, cycling authorities and race organizers have worked hard to fight doping suspicions. The decision by Tour chiefs Jean-Claude Killy and Jean-Marie Leblanc not to invite crowd favorite Richard Virenque, the whole of the TVM and Vini Caldirola teams and two leading ONCE officials sparked a furor, but it was at least an attempt to change things. Doping controls will be strengthened, and all the riders at the start of the prologue on Saturday will undergo blood tests. As a result, the race itself should be especially open. Other prominent riders, such as Belgian Franck Vandenbroucke and injured Italian Michele Bartoli, have also withdrawn, but the race will not comprise unknowns alone. American Bobby Julich, who finished third last year, made it clear he was looking to do even better this season and emulate triple Tour winner Greg LeMond, the first and last American to wear the yellow jersey on the Champs Elysees. Climbers should not be helped by the reasonably flat itinerary this year, and that is the reason Pantani gave for not coming. Some were bolder, such as Ivan Gotti, the man who won the Giro d'Italia in Pantani's place after "Il Pirata" was stopped for failing a blood test. Gotti, who was fifth in 1995, finds himself the leader of the Polti team in the absence of Virenque. Russia's Pavel Tonkov, the Giro winner in 1996, also looks a strong hope in his first Tour since 1994. Dutch fans will pin their hopes on solid Paris-Nice winner Michael Boogerd, who could become the first Dutchman to win in 20 years. Switzerland's Alex Zuelle, who admitted he had taken the banned drug erythropoietin (EPO) when he was with Festina, returns a cleaner rider, like compatriot Laurent Dufaux, now with Saeco. Both did not ride competitively from the Tour until last month through suspension. Hopes of a first French victory since the fifth of Bernard Hinault in 1985 look very dim. Unless, as in 1956, an unknown rider takes the field by surprise.
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