CYCLING: Watching a nation's hopes coming apart at the seams in the space of a few seconds carries a certain sadistic fascination, and that is what Bastille Day on the Tour de France tends to offer the neutral observer.William Fotheringham reports
Not even the most optimistic Frenchman has expected a first overall victory in the national sports event since Laurent Fignon faded in the early 1990s, but on Bastille Day there remained grounds for optimism a stage win might be feasible.
Occasionally the home men do deliver - or rather, Laurent Jalabert, last year's Bastille Day hero, does. Yesterday was not one of those days. Three Frenchmen, Sebastien Hinault, Franck Renierand, and Stephane Auge, infiltrated the seven-man escape that fought out the stage finish, but they were unable to outwit the Dutchman Karsten Kroon, who stole a march in the final metres, sneaking past on the left of the finishing straight.
Worse still for Gallic pride, close behind Kroon came the two other Dutchmen in the escape: Servais Knaven, the winner of last year's Paris-Roubaix Classic, and Erik Dekker, who won three stages of the 2000 Tour, but is getting over a broken leg, and was merely hanging on in the final miles - hardly surprising given the average speed was a hectic 29 m.p.h.
In terms of national disgrace, it was not quite on the scale of Senegal beating "Les Bleus" in Seoul, but there will be much muttering this morning over the coffee and croissants.
As if to underline the importance of what awaits the race today on the windswept coast roads between Lanester and Lorient, Lance Armstrong's US Postal Service team took control of the peloton yesterday as they approached the final loop around the village.
Their plan was to keep the pace high, with their leader tucked in just behind the string, to avoid a repetition of the crash of the previous day, when the Texan's back wheel became tangled up in the handlebars of his team-mate Roberto Heras on the run-in to Avranches, causing him to lose 26 seconds.
Armstrong has yet to lose a long time trial in the last three Tours, and if he is not in the yellow jersey this evening, questions will be asked about his form. He is not talking up his chances.
"Gonzalez Galdeano will be good. He can win. He's got the yellow jersey and is very motivated. It could be he will have a super day and win by 30 seconds," he said.
This is mere diplomacy: if the Spaniard were to manage this it would be the biggest upset in any of what must now be called the Armstrong Tours.
As a result of his crash, Armstrong has 34 seconds to make up on Galdeano, and 30 seconds on Joseba Beloki, who perhaps represents the bigger threat overall. However, there was something ominously powerful about the way he outpaced the team-mates who slipped off the back of the peloton and waited for him, after he was left behind coming into Avranches.
The posse of Postmen were supposed to help their leader catch up; in the event they could not even keep up with him.
There is, however, one small footnote that might divert attention from whatever he achieves today: the whereabouts of his controversial trainer, Michele Ferrari, who is on trial over drugs charges.
According to Ferrari's wife, the doctor is currently on leave in France, until the end of the month. No one seems to know whether or not this is a busman's holiday.
