Brief halts to answer nature's call are an inevitable part of life for the peloton, given that Tour de France stages can be up to eight hours long, and large amounts of coffee are drained at the start. Toilet stops are usually taken en masse, and it is considered bad form to take advantage and attack, particularly if the yellow jersey has stopped.
Yesterday, though, his morning "pause pipi" cost Laurent Jalabert the maillot jaune. His Once team had already been caught short on Wednesday when five of the field took flight and they were forced to spend 100km bringing them to order; 24 hours later, just 10km from the start in Vitre, they were again left high and dry. At the end of the stage, after the race lead had passed to the Italian Alberto Elli, Jalabert was livid: "In future I will piss in the hotel."
This time the escapees numbered a dozen. Jalabert has only eight team-mates and rather than fight an unequal battle, he waited for other teams to assist. They refused and the 12 duly disappeared among the apple orchards and cornfields of the Mayenne departement, hightailing it for the chateaux of the Loire.
Eleven of their number were honest grafters, but Elli, a member of Jan Ullrich's Deutsche Telekom squad, could not be given too much leeway. He managed seventh place in 1994, finished 17th last year and for all his 36 years, he is not the type who will simply evaporate in the mountains.
The task of keeping the 12 within a respectable distance thus fell to the teams with an eye on overall victory, apart from Deutsche Telekom, who could sit back smugly as Elli's advantage increased. Eventually, it was Lance Armstrong's US Postal team which unwillingly began the pursuit when the 12 had gained almost 13 minutes; they could not prevent Elli taking the yellow jersey, but he is only a perfectly manageable 5 minutes 54 seconds ahead of Armstrong.
Three of the 12 escapees were members of the Dutch Rabobank team; their plan was for the slowest man, Marc Wauters, to pull back any attacks near the finish, while the Dutch champion Leon van Bon was delegated to lead out his Swiss counterpart Markus Zberg, the speediest of the trio.
In the event, Van Bon was so strong that Zberg contented himself with second. Elli may not enjoy the yellow jersey for long, as he leads Fabrice Gougot by only 12 seconds, which equals two of the time bonuses given for winning intermediate sprints, three of which are included today.
Gougot will be aware that he may never be this close to the lead again and may follow the maxim of the poet Pierre de Ronsard, who lived near here: "Pick your roses today."
Meanwhile, the Australian Stuart O'Grady, the winner of the 1998 Tour of Britain, withdrew from the Tour last night with a dislocated shoulder incurred in a pile-up after 112 kilometres yesterday.
Results: Sixth stage
(198.5km ride from Vitre to Tours) 1 L van Bon (Ned) Rabobank 4hr 28min 06sec, 2 M Zberg (Swi) 3 E Magnien (Fra), 4 S Knaven (Ned), 5 A Piziks (Lat), 6 A Elli (Ita), 7 F Gougot (Fra), 8 S Commesso (Ita), 9 J Durand (Fra), 10 J Luis Arrieta (Spa), 11 P Chanteur (Fra) all same time, 12 M Wauters (Bel) at 13sec, 13 R McEwen (Aus) 7:49, 14 M Wust (Ger), 15 M Backstedt (Swe), 16 E Zabel (Ger), 17 J Koerts (Ned), 18 D Nazon (Fra), 19 G Magnusson (Swe) all same time
Overall: 1 A Elli (Ita) Telekom 18hr 58min 40sec, 2 F Gougot (Fra) at 12sec, 3 M Wauters (Bel) 1:17, 4 P Chanteur (Fra) 2:56, 5 J Luis Arrieta (Spa) 3:08, 6 J Durand (Fra) 3:27, 7 S Commesso (Ita) 3:52, 8 S Knaven (Ned) 4:31, 9 A Piziks (Lit) 4:38, 10 L Jalabert (Fra) 5:40, 11 D Canada (Spa) 5:52, 12 L Armstrong (USA) 5:54, 13 A Olano (Spa) 6:13, 14 E Magnien (Fra) 6:17, 15 V Ekimov (Rus) 6:23
