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Tour pays tribute to retiring Jalabert Posted: Wednesday July 17, 2002 12:01 PMPAU, France (Reuters) -- Spectators and riders alike paid homage to Laurent Jalabert after the Frenchman announced on the eve of the 10th stage of the Tour de France that he would be retiring from cycling at the end of the season. "Thanks Jaja," read banners on the side of the road Wednesday, in tribute to the most successful French rider of his generation, also nicknamed "the panda." "I'm a little surprised because I thought he would go on for one more year," said fellow Frenchman Richard Virenque, with Jalabert the most popular rider in his country. "Now I cannot say I'm left on my own, but he will be missed," Virenque added. The two had long been rivals but they became great friends last year when Virenque was suspended for doping. Jalabert was recovering from a back injury and they trained together in Switzerland. "It was better to become friends late than never. But it was great psychological help to train with Laurent," he said. "Laurent started a little bit earlier than me and he now retires a little earlier but obviously seeing him retire tells me that my time will come soon," he added. Three times Tour champion Lance Armstrong said the retirement of Jalabert, Mario Cipollini, Johan Museeuw, Andrei Tchmil and Abraham Olano at the end of the season would mark "the end of an era." Courage Armstrong's team manager Johan Bruyneel knows Jalabert very well as he rode with him in the Spanish Once team between 1992 and 1998. "I'm sure he took his time to make such a decision and it has to be admired," he said. "There comes a time when a rider begins to think about other things than just the race and then there's like five percent of the passion gone." "That's when the time comes to retire," he added. Jalabert was the Once team leader from 1995 to Bruyneel's retirement from cycling in 1998 and the Belgian said he had been full of admiration for his French teammate. "What comes to mind first is his courage and his wish to fight back when he had injury problems," Bruyneel said. "I remember his crash in 1994 in Armentieres. I lived it inside the team. Only weeks after recovering, he was winning a race." Jalabert was seriously injured when he crashed into a policeman taking a picture at the end of a Tour de France stage in Armentieres, in the north of France.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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