Gorilla warfare

Botero goes on rampage in Alps

A mass of raw, untamed power, Santiago Botero recovered his mountain legs to go on the rampage in the first Alpine stage, reports Cycling Weekly magazine.

COLOMBIAN Santiago Botero provided his fans with a convincing reminder at Les Deux-Alpes that, despite his inconsistency on the cols, he has not lost his climbing ability.

Furthermore, although he was the driving force behind all the early attacks, the Kelme co-leader still remained the strongest of a seven-man breakaway on the 11-kilometer ascent to the ski station situated on the opposite side of the valley that also leads to l’Alpe d’Huez.

What it meant THE first Alpine stage has set a pattern which could continue through until Thursday. An early break establishes a lead, US Postal impose a steady rhythm behind to prevent things getting out of hand, and then LAnce Armstrong moves to the front in the final kilometers. What Armstrong saw at the Les Deux-Alpes summit was not easy to interpret. Joseba Beloki’s attack, allegedly to defend Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano’s fourth place, had the opposite effect, allowing Raimondas Rumsas to move further ahead overall. Neither Armstrong nor Rumsas had any problems matching Beloki, a sign that the Lithuanian may well make a solid defense of his third place in the mountains. Even Beloki now says: “I know that Armstrong will win the Tour, all I want now is to take second.” Maybe, but attacks like that won’t help his teammate Gonzalez de Galdeano finish fourth.

Following his impressive victory in the Lorient time trial over Lance Armstrong (US Postal), Botero’s delight at taking a second stage in eight days was plain to see. After attacking halfway up the col, the Colombian began a series of arm-waving salutes 500 meters before the finish, including a gesture of prayer towards the sky. N ot since Lucho Herrera in 1985 has a Colombian taken two stages in one Tour. Thanks to Botero’s exploits, the country is said to be once more in the grip of cycling fever, similar to that of two decades ago, when Herrera and Fabio Parra thrilled their home public with attacks in the mountains.

“It ’s great to be carrying on a little where they left off,” said Botero, one of just two Colombians in the race this year. “People tell me when I win it’s as if the national team had qualified for the World Cup or if Juan Pablo Montoya was first in a Formula One race,” he added.

No easy ride

It was not an easy victory for Botero. In 2000 he had become the first Colombian since Herrera to take the polka-dot jersey, mainly thanks to a lone win at Briançon after breaking away over the Vars, Allos and Izoard passes. But Botero’s climbing abilities have suffered as he has concentrated on his time trialling -- as became obvious on the Ventoux, where he lost 15 minutes to Richard Virenque (Domo) and any chance of taking the podium place that had been his pre-Tour objective.

So after a fast and furious start to the stage, in which the first hour was run off at over 48kph,the Kelme rider struck lucky and went clear at his third attempt, at around kilometer 60. Bearing in mind this was the longest stage of the Tour at 226.5 kilometers, that temperatures were soaring up into the mid-30s again, and that the seven cols on the day’s menu meant there was barely a meter of flat, Botero was more than pleased when shortly after he and fellow breakaway Mario Aerts (Lotto), the winner of Flèche Wallonne this spring, were joined by another five riders. None of the five reinforcements -- Emmanuel Magnien (Bonjour), Axel Merckx (Domo), Sandy Casar (fdjeux.com), Vicente Garcia Acosta (ibanesto.com) and Martin Hvastija (Alessio) -- could be considered a threat to Armstrong.

Meanwhile, this was not a good day for one former overall challenger, Frenchman Christophe Moreau, who added to Crédit Agricole’s miserable Tour by crashing for a fourth and final time. The 30-year-old, fourth in the 2000 Tour, left the race in an ambulance in tears and with serious facial injuries.

After three hours’ racing, the seven achieved a maximum lead of 10-40, and, although US Postal’s steady rhythm behind had reduced that advantage by a minute at the foot of Les Deux-Alpes, it was nonetheless highly likely that one of the seven would win.

The break’s two Belgians opened fire first, Aerts and then Merckx putting in quick digs after Botero had hauled the break up the first third of the climb. But it was the Colombian who got the gap, with a quick lunge forward in response to Aerts’ attack, followed by a steady, measured acceleration.

Botero’s climbing style is hardly the most elegant in the world -- his head cocked on one side, the sweat pouring off his face in rivers, and his shoulders hunched forward over the bars -- but nonetheless, somehow, it worked. Already 30 seconds ahead after just 500 meters, with three kilometers left to race, Botero had more than doubled his advantage.

Although Botero had a similar expression of agony to Merckx, who was suffering badly and was overtaken by Aerts, Botero managed to open the gap even further by the finish line, taking Colombia’s 12th ever Tour stage by a margin of 1-51 over the Lotto-Adecco rider, with Merckx crossing the line 2-30 back.

The yellow jersey group behind was steadily being split up by ONCE’s Jose Azevedo but,as Armstrong said at the summit, the climb was not hard enough -- and too little had occurred beforehand in the main bunch -- for too much to happen.

The Texan pounced on Joseba Beloki (ONCE) when he made a brief spurt off the front near the finish after US Postal’s star climber Roberto Heras had put in a quick dig, with Rumsas bridging the 30-meter gap opened up by Beloki almost as fast as Armstrong. Try as the Basque might, he will have to work a lot harder to catch out the American -- and time is not on his side.

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