Transitional stage sees hype and jazz suspended

TRANSITIONAL stages, as the legs of the Tour de France which link the Alps, and the Pyrenees are known, tend to be one of two extremes. Occasionally they provide unexpected high drama - the most recent example being Laurent Jalabert's Indurain-shaking victory last year at Mende.

More often they tend towards tactical stalemate, where the overall contenders are content to swatch each other for any signs of weakness, and lesser lights are given their head. Yesterday was the latter rather than the former, with nine men who presented no threat whatsoever being permitted to gain 15 minutes.

Perhaps the fact that a `transition stage' provided the most dramatic racing last year has led to expectations of this year's phase, though the Massif Central being raised to unrealistic levels.

French television showed the whole 143 kilometres live, but the second Tour de France stage win of Switzerland's Pascal Richard received a far more muted reception from the commentators compared to, their excitement when, a bungee, jumper dived off a railway viaduct - from which, bizarrely, an entire jazz band was hanging in climbers' harnesses - as the race passed.

Richard's countryman Tony Rominger, may be less than a minute behind overall leader Bjarne Riis, but he was more concerned with survival. As the race climbed on to the watershed between Atlantic and Mediterranean bound rivers, the Swiss, Evgeny Berzin and Miguel Indurain contented themselves with watching Riis for any sign of weakness.

Like hovering hawks, the big men circled around the yellow-jersey, but did not swoop.

"Perhaps the course wasn't hard enough, or, perhaps I'm very strong," was Riis's assessment. Yesterday's stage finish was in the heart of the chain of puys as the chain of extinct volcanoes which run down the Massif Central are known.

The little finish town is dominated by the Rocher Saint Michel, on top of which a roman chapel perches, and the Corneille with its 50-foot high statue of the Black Virgin. The writer George Sand noted: "It's not Switzerland, it's less intimidating.

It's not Italy, its prettier."

Something similar could be said of yesterday's stage winner. Pascal Richard is a smiling 32-year old from the French-speaking area of Switzerland, who has spent the last few years racing, in Italy. He lacks the intense seriousness usually attributed to his German-speaking countrymen, and talks a far more dispassionate, analytical race than any of his team-mates in the mainly Italian MG Technogym team.

With over 60 victories in a 10 year career, he is a prolific winner, yet nowhere near a star. Richard's victory was as cleverly taken as his win in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege Classic in April or his Tour of Lombardy in 1993. Yesterday he outsmarted the eight other riders in the lead group by making a brief attack on a short hill with two kilometres to the finish and then pretending that the effort was too much for him.

As a result, the fastest man in the group, Denmark's Jesper Skibby, a Tour stage winner in 1993, took his eye off him, assuming that Richard had nothing left. It was a fatal error, as when the Swiss pounced in the final metres, Skibby was taken completely by surprise. Apart from Richard's wily victory, the rest of the day's action could be covered by a summary of Sand's words - betwixt and between.

Which, after all, is what an etape de transition is meant to be.