Backstedt in joyous mood

Getting to Paris is the thought uppermost in the minds of the peloton who are fed up with the sour atmosphere on this Tour. Yesterday the 96 survivors sped across the plains of eastern France and into the Burgundian vineyards as if a fleet of gendarmes were in hot pursuit with sirens blaring.

For some, that is the case. The TVM team are expected in Reims for questioning on Monday; yesterday, as if they feared that les flics might be waiting when the race crossed the border between Switzerland and France, they decided to go back to Holland via Germany and declined to turn up at the start.

TVM team director Guido Van Calster issued a statement on behalf of the riders saying the TVM team had been exhausted by the events of recent weeks.

"All the riders on the TVM team have decided not to take part in the 19th stage of the Tour de France," the statement said. "We are not mentally or physically capable of finishing the Tour. It was decision taken by the riders alone."

This Tour is now short of an unprecedented seven teams; incredibly, not one Spaniard will make it to the finish tomorrow. When it was suggested to one rider at the start that this might be a good stage for his team-mate, a bunch sprinter, he said curtly: "What does winning matter now?"

To some it matters a great deal. Magnus Backstedt is in his first Tour, and after giving Sweden its first stage win in the race his joy was uncontained. The young six-and-a-half footer, whose vast blond-headed bulk stands out in the pack like a lighthouse, is part of an English-speaking nucleus at Chris Boardman's GAN team, which has provided the squad with the bulk of their successes this year.

His victory followed on Boardman's prologue triumph and the Australian Stuart O'Grady's stage win and two days in the yellow jersey. The Swede and O'Grady were among a baker's dozen who at one point gained 20 minutes on a bunch just happy to follow at a steady pace as the gorges of the Jura gave way to cornfields and finally to stone villages nestling among rolling hills covered in neatly ordered vines.

The escape began literally as the start flag was dropped, and lasted the full 151 miles, covered at over 29mph. Similar speeds were reached in Brittany and at times on the day of the riders' first strike, and Thursday's hilly 136 miles went by at almost 28mph. This Tour has not been solely about go-slows.

Backstedt's victory was coolly and powerfully taken. He remained firmly in the slipstream of a four-man group when the 13 split approached the finish. "I told them they could go for it, or Stuart O'Grady would win it anyway." His three companions had no choice but to tow him to the final metres, and he dispatched them with clinical precision.

"I can't believe it. It's incredible to win a stage of the Tour," said Belgian-based Backstedt. "I've worked hard for Stuart O'Grady in this race and today he worked hard for me."

As he crossed the line ahead of Den Bakker, Backstedt rose, hands held high with a victor's smile he may not have been expecting to use for quite a few years.

While the yellow jersey looks set to remain on Marco Pantani's shoulders today, the four places behind him are up for grabs in the 52-kilometre time-trial.

Jan Ullrich is likely to make up the 14-second margin which separates him from second place, held by Bobby Julich of the United States, and the Dutchman Michael Boogerd should leapfrog France's Christophe Rinero into fourth.

The Dutch government is to set up an inquiry into the French authorities' handling of the drug scandals which have blighted the Tour.