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Polka dot duel Virenque-Jalabert clash thrills Tour fansPosted: Tuesday July 23, 2002 11:46 AMLES DEUX ALPES, France (Reuters) -- Slightly bored with Lance Armstrong's domination and always partial to second fiddles, French crowds are finding a new interest in the Tour de France with the battle between local heroes Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque. Neither has a chance of becoming the first Frenchman since Bernard Hinault in 1985 to win cycling's showcase race, but they are the two leading contenders in the chase for the king of the mountains polka-dot jersey. The French have enjoyed taking sides in battles between conflicting sports personalities since the days of Jacques Anquetil against Raymond Polidor or Bernard Hinault and Laurent Fignon. And the Jalabert-Virenque clash is an ideal one. They are almost the same age, Jalabert 34 and Virenque 33, and were archrivals for a long time before circumstances brought them together and turned them into friends. Jalabert, who announced he would retire at the end of the season, is one of the most successful riders in the bunch with 135 wins in 14 years as a pro. But he has failed to attract the same popularity as Virenque because he has almost always raced abroad for a foreign team and has seldom been at his best in the Tour. By contrast, Virenque has only lived for the Tour and has scored his biggest victories in it, winning five mountain stages and five best climber jerseys. Only three years ago, the two were not on speaking terms and Jalabert complained in public about not being as popular as a rider with "hardly 20 wins under his belt." Became friends Virenque had replied by launching his Festina team behind Jalabert in 1996 when his compatriot broke away in a Tour stage. The gap between France's best known riders looked impossible to bridge until Virenque was banned for eight months last season after confessing in court to taking performance-enhancing drugs when he was leading the Festina team in 1998. Both live in Switzerland, near Geneva and when Jalabert, injured at the time, saw that Virenque was being left alone by the rest of the cycling bunch, he invited him to train with him. They became friends but Jalabert took advantage of Virenque's absence from last year's Tour to win the polka-dot mountain jersey that had become his friend's trademark. This year, Jalabert repeated last year's tactics of going for the king of the mountains classification and was leading it with 167 points after stage 14's Mont Ventoux climb while Virenque, winner up the Ventoux, was third on 99 points. Jalabert insisted that he was not fighting for the polka-dot jersey with Virenque. "It seems more clever to me to support one another than to split in two camps," said Jalabert. "Frankly, I don't think there is a clash. I'm not going to retire by saying, I've crushed Virenque," he added. But Virenque sounded more aggressive: "We're friends but it's only natural that there is a sporting rivalry between us," he said. "I can still win the king of the mountains jersey and if I can take it, I will," he added.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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