Shy Ullrich wraps it up in Paris

When Jan Ullrich in the yellow jersey and his team-mate, the points leader Erik Zabel, solemnly crossed themselves as the field rolled out of the start in Disneyland's Main Street yesterday, their gestures seemed rather incongruous, given that their surroundings are devoted to two other gods: Walt and Mammon.

Given the dangerous goings on in sprints this year, Zabel's need to ask deliverance could be understood. In four hours he was due to launch himself into the hotly-contested finish on the Champs Elysees, where the Italian Nicola Minali squeezed through a tiny gap between the German and the barriers to take his second stage win of the race. These dangers are everyday: the appearance of a streaker as the last riders rode up the Champs was, however, a first.

On the other hand, the race leader had no need to request divine assistance: the only event of the whole stage which was in any way threatening came when two French riders grabbed a banner from some supporters of the national hero and runner-up Richard Virenque, and brandished it at the front of the bunch.

The carnival mood began the evening before when the riders met their families in Disneyland, and continued into the first 40 miles, covered at a pottering pace of less than 18 miles per hour. Ullrich crossed himself before the start of each time trial stage in this Tour and he did it again as he passed the line in Saturday's time trial.

The gestures were a reminder that for all the raw talent and strength he has displayed in the last three weeks, he has yet to show the confidence that will surely come with greater maturity and must have increased after his, and Germany's, first Tour victory. If further confirmation of this were needed, it came when the young German briefly allowed Virenque to escape on the Champs Elysees yesterday.

At 23 years, seven months, Ullrich is the youngest Tour winner since Laurent Fignon took his first victory in 1983: his winning margin of nine minutes, nine seconds over Virenque is the largest since Fignon opened up a gap of more than 10 minutes on his fellow Frenchman Bernard Hinault in 1984.

The Fignon parallel is instructive, given the superlatives that were being used about Ullrich after his incredible performances in the second week of this Tour: the Frenchman was so dominant in 1984 that he was expected to win several more Tours, yet he never took another, due to persistent injuries.

The voices that hailed Ullrich as a probable successor to Indurain were more silent in the final week, when the young German began to show the strain which goes with the yellow jersey.

He caught a cold, complained of a sore throat - probably from large numbers of interviews for the German media, who have suddenly appeared on the Tour in unprecedented numbers. It has been pointed out repeatedly in recent days that Tour greats such as Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain showed few signs of the physical fragility Ullrich demonstrated in the little cols between France and Switzerland, and, most seriously, in the Vosges last Thursday.

There is still speculation among riders and managers that Virenque could have put him in serious trouble if he had shown greater tactical awareness on that day. After seven successive wins by riders aged more than 27, the age at which the lore of the peloton has it that a cyclist reaches maturity, it is somehow strange to see a rider so young win cycling's greatest endurance event.

Team-mates speak of his need for reassurance and advice compared to the terse confidence showed by Riis, who is nearly 10 years his senior, but they also laud the single-minded modesty bred into him at the Dynamo Berlin cycling club.

"You never see him reading about himself in the papers, all he thinks about is his bike," said one. The impression of a youth finding his feet in a new world was strengthened when Ullrich, who is not known for being demonstrative with those outside his immediate circle of close friends, seemed genuinely surprised and delighted once his success was assured with second place to the Spaniard Abraham Olano in Saturday's time trial through the countryside outside Disneyland Paris.

Olano's victory, and his rise to fourth place overall, will reassure those in Spain who see him as the man to carry the Indurain torch. The master of the contre la montre himself would have been impressed with the combination of power and speed shown by the 27year-old Basque, and there was a hint of times past in the sight of a big man in the strip of the Banesto bank wearing a Darth Vader helmet gobbling up the tarmac.

While Olano salvaged something from his Tour at the last moment, the nightmare of last year's winner Bjarne Riis continued to the bitter end. Mechanical problems caused him to lose 10 minutes to Olano on Saturday, and even the run-in the Champs Elysees was not trouble free, thanks to a problem with his cycle computer followed by a puncture.