Lone and unknown

Bertogliati defies peloton to win stage one

Sparks flew as Lance Armstrong found himself ahead of the pack in a surprise break, and then little-known Swiss rider Rubens Bertogliati defied a speeding peloton to take both the stage and the maillot jaune. Cycling Weekly magazine reports.

THE 192.5-kilometer circuit, starting and finishing in Luxembourg, looked pretty complicated with two fourth and two third-category climbs, as well as a plethora of smaller hills designed to break-up the peloton and avoid a bunch sprint.

But few would have expected to see Lance Armstrong’s (US Postal) bright yellow jersey in a break of nine riders, born in strange circumstances out of a combination of a steep third-category climb, a "traffic jam" of race vehicles and, last but not least, the Texan being alert to the smallest possible danger.

The US Postal leader’s chance to test the sharpness of his rivals’ reactions came about as the early break of the day, a three-up move containing Christophe Mengin (FdJeux.com), Stéphane Berges (Ag2r) and Ludo Dierckxsens (Lampre) began struggling on an 800-meter stretch of an 18 per cent gradient on the Côte du Wormeldange.

Belgian Rik Verbrugghe (Lotto) shot out of the peloton with Armstrong, Bradley McGee (FdJeux.com), Michael Boogerd (Rabobank) and Santiago Botero (Kelme) in hot pursuit. They were quickly joined by both David Millar and his Cofidis co-leader Andrei Kivilev,as well as last year’s Aix-les-Bains stage inner Serguei Ivanov (Fassa Bortolo).

And where were the chasers? Where were Armstrong’s other challengers? They were initially boxed in by the following cars, but also unable to respond to the acceleration on the Wormeldange’s steep, narrow slopes.

To be caught napping like that was a major embarrassment for ONCE’s two overall challengers,not to mention Armstrong’s fellow- Americans Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank) and Tyler Hamilton (CSC-Tiscali).

What it meant It would be hard to envisage a better scenario for Lance Armstrong than the way he lost the maillot jaune on Sunday. Rubens Bertogliati and Lampre will hardly have been able to believe that a stage win -- which would have more than justified their place in the Tour this year -- brought them the race lead as well, and they will now be determined to hang on to yellow. True, the weakness of the squad (not to mention team-leader Raimondas Rumsas’ longer-term ambitions overall) could cause them to make a limited defense of the jersey, but the Italian team is exactly the kind of ally Armstrong will be looking for to keep the race under control. Then Telekom, smarting from their defeat at the hands of an upstart like the third-year pro, will be determined to ensure there is no repeat scenario as the race reaches home territory in Germany on Monday. As if that was not satisfying enough for Armstrong, he was very much on the right side of the traffic jam-induced split on the Côte de Wormeldange. Now all he has to do is watch and wait for the team time trial while avoiding the pressure of leading the Tour. That can come later.

Only Frenchman Christophe Moreau had a reasonable excuse, but, unfortunately, it was for the wrong reasons. The Crédit Agricole leader had crashed shortly before the climb, further aggravating the pre-race injuries in his right knee. Then, after a bike change close to the Wormeldange climb lost him further time -- the mechanic had to run through the traffic jam to find him -- a further accident later on had him grimacing in pain, and after finishing three minutes down it was clear he was close to throwing in the towel for GC.

Another crash victim was Erik Dekker (Rabobank). The breakaway specialist and 2001 World Cup inner suffered major bruising to his hip and left knee

But Moreau and the Dutchman’s woes were forgotten in the excitement of seeing Armstrong in the group of nine riders off the front. All of them put in turns at the front, but the Texan’s repeated backward glances suggested that, with 40 kilometers still left to race, the chances were they were on a hiding to nothing.

ONCE and CSC finally reeled the move in, which never took more than around a 20-second advantage, as the race wound alongside the river Moselle. But for five kilometers the signs were clear, yet again, of just how strong Armstrong was -- and who his strongest, or sharpest, rivals might be.

US Postal then showed their collective might by working hard on the front as the race continued to roar over a series of smaller climbs, with first CSC, working for Laurent Jalabert -- who had drawn equal with Armstrong overall thanks to a time bonus -- and then Lotto also putting their men in the leading string.

However, they were unable to prevent Boogerd, Ivanov, Axel Merckx (Domo) and Jean-Cyril Robin (FdJeux.com) putting in a dangerous four-up attack on the final descent into Luxembourg, and it was only when Telekom also lent a hand that things began to look calmer.

The scenario looked nicely set-up for Telekom’s Erik Zabel to celebrate his 32nd birthday with a 12th stage, when Bertogliati suddenly surged off up the road in the final kilometer.

The move looked doomed, but, as the road reared upwards with a short but vicious climb, the young Lampre rider’s advantage widened. Try as Zabel’s henchmen might, the Swiss rider, whose biggest success to date had been the GP Chiasso this spring, even had time to swing into the center of the road and cross the line with his left fist punching the air.

Bertogliati appeared shell-shocked as he stepped onto the podium three times to receive the honors for the stage, the best young rider’s jersey and the maillot jaune.

"I was only going for the stage," he explained afterwards. This is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a child."

All credit to him, then, for taking a leaf out of Erik Dekker’s book and breaking away in the teeth of the sprinters’ teams.

Millar was satisfied with his presence so close to the front, even though he was ousted out of white by the Swiss.

"I took fourth place in two intermediate sprints, so my plans for the maillot jaune didn’t work out," he told CW. "But other than that I’m clearly strong, and going well. Getting in that move with Armstrong was a real boost."

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