Serrano lifts his team's spirits

CYCLING Tour de France: The stiff ascent to the bleak aerodrome high above this little town is known as the Croix-Neuve, but it has been named "the Laurent Jalabert climb" in honour of the local man's dramatic if unsuccessful attack on Miguel Indurain's yellow jersey on Bastille Day 10 years ago.

Yesterday that memory only served to underline the lack of drama in the Lance Armstrong era of total, clinical control.

There was a distant connection with the "Jaja" years, however: the stage winner, the Spaniard Marcos Serrano, rides for Jalabert's former team Once, if under the new colours of the insurance company Liberty Seguros. He had been told in the morning to attempt the win in honour of their old leader, and his victory made up in part for a disastrous Tour after the team's leaders, Roberto Heras and Joseba Beloki, rode poorly in the mountains.

Two separate battles, for the stage win and the minor placings overall, were contested 15 minutes apart on the two miles of steep hairpins. The stage was fought out by the survivors of the day's escape - Serrano; Axel Merckx, son of the great Eddy but never a stage winner on the Tour; Thomas Voeckler, who is still the darling of the home crowd after wearing the yellow jersey for 10 days in 2004; his fellow Frenchman Cedric Vasseur; and the Spaniard Xabier Zandio.

There was no need for tactics: the steepness of the climb ensured that the decision came down simply to legs and lungs. Merckx is not quite the equal of his illustrious father, Vasseur is too heavily built for a climb of this steepness, and Voeckler has looked short of horsepower.

Serrano, a 32-year-old from Galicia, is a rare bird in cycling, a Spaniard with a major single-day win to his name, the Milan-Turin. Yesterday he simply rode away from the others on the climb at his own pace, with the stage victory assured well before he breasted the summit and swooped down on to the plateau.

The stage started in the shadow of the vast red-brick cathedral in Albi, built in the 14th century to symbolise Catholic domination over the heretic Albigensians.

Armstrong has crushed any signs of rebellion amid the peloton this year, and as ever he was implacable on the final ascent, responding to an attack from Ivan Basso and setting a pace which only the Italian, the German Jan Ullrich and the Australian Cadel Evans were able to live with.

Yesterday the brief, intense sort-out over the final hill meant the pecking order behind Armstrong was shuffled again, with Ullrich continuing his relentless quest for third place, currently held by Mickael Rasmussen. The German pulled back 37 seconds on the Dane yesterday and is now only two minutes 13 seconds adrift, a margin which can be wiped out tomorrow.

Armstrong, with today's brief run through the Massif Central, tomorrow's time-trial - which he hopes to win if he can beat Ullrich - and the final stage in Paris on Sunday, now has only 220 miles to race as a professional before his retirement.

He is spending his final days in typically combative style. Yesterday he was apparently somewhat discomfited at being selected for a random blood test in addition to the usual urine test. He had words with Evans after the Australian outsprinted him for 10th place and complained to a journalist from l'Equipe after the newspaper wrote he had ridden against his former team-mate Floyd Landis at the end of Wednesday's stage. "I'm thinking about the end a lot, especially as it gets closer," the Texan said yesterday. "To be honest I'm ready for the end; I'm ready for this period to be over and to move on to something else."

STAGE 18 DETAILS

Albi-Mende, 189 km

1 Marcos Serrano (Spa) Liberty Seguros-Wurth 4hrs 37mins 36secs, 2 Cedric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone at 0.27secs, 3 Axel Merckx (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto at same time, 4 Xabier Zandio (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne at 1min 8secs, 5 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi at same time, 6 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom at 1.28, 7 Luke Roberts (Aus) Team CSC at same time, 8 Matthias Kessler (Ger) T-Mobile Team at 1.44, 9 Egoi Martinez (Spn) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 2.03, 10 Carlos Da Cruz (Fra) Francaise Des Jeux at 2.38, 11 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 11.18, 12 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel.

General Classification: 1 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 77hrs 44mins 44secs, 2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC at 2mins 46secs, 3 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank at 3.46, 4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team at 5.58, 5 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne at 7.08, 6 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner at 8.12, 7 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 9.49, 8 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team at 10.11, 9 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems at 10.42, 10 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole at 13.15,11 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Lampre-Caffita at 15.13, 12 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel at 15.53.