Cycling: If further confirmation of the tightness and tension of this Tour were needed, it came 30 miles into yesterday's stage in the honeyed limestone village of Montendre, where Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong offered a unique sight: the two favourites, yellow jersey and pale blue, belting up the main street for the first intermediate sprint of the day.
The two or three intermediate sprints on each stage liven up the dull bit early in the day. The money is not massive - €803, €450 and €296 to the first three across the line, plus points towards the green jersey. The overall contenders do not usually bother with the sprints, leaving them to the also-rans and the sprinters going for the green jersey. The point was made yesterday at Montendre: the winner was Robbie McEwen, who is now a whisker ahead of Baden Cooke in the battle for the green.
But the sprints also carry time bonuses: six, four and two seconds. This may sound minuscule, and it is. However, the closest Tour to date, the LeMond-Fignon epic of 1989, came down to eight seconds, or a first and third place in two bonus sprints. Hence the surprising spectacle offered to the good burghers of Montendre, where Ullrich decided a few seconds would help the cause and Armstrong felt he had to respond.
It is a measure of how finely poised the race is going into today's flat 49-kilometre (31 miles) time-trial from Pornic to Nantes. After Ullrich's sprint in Montendre, and Armstrong's reply, the German clawed back two seconds for taking second to Armstrong's third, which means he is a minute and five seconds adrift.
It is big enough, or small enough, for both men to hope. Armstrong has taken the final time-trial in all the four Tours he has won, twice beating Ullrich. Given that all he has to do to conserve the maillot jaune is finish within 65 seconds of the German, that makes him the favourite. Ullrich, on the other hand, won the time-trial last Friday over a similar distance by 95 seconds. If he repeats that margin today, it should give him the Tour.
Yesterday the stage winner, Pablo Lastras of Spain, sped from Bordeaux to Poitou at over 30 m.p.h., pushed by the wind to the second-fastest stage in the history of the Tour. He and his fellow 15 escapees enjoyed a vast lead, over 24 minutes at the finish.
Guardian Service
STAGE 18 (203.5kms from Bordeaux to Saint-Maixent-l'Ecole): Leading places: 1 P Lastras (Spa) iBanesto.com 4hrs 3mins 18secs, 2 C Da Cruz (Fra) FDJeux.com, 3 D Nardello (Ita) Team Telekom at same time, 4 D Canada (Spa) Quick.Step-Davitamon at 0.04, 5 M Lelli (Ita) Cofidis - Credit Par Telephone at 0.19, 6 A Flickinger (Fra) Ag2R Prevoyance, 7 T Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere, 8 P Fornaciari (Ita) Saeco at same time, 9 F Guidi (Ita) Team Bianchi at 0.35, 10 V Miholjevic (Cro) Alessio.
OVERALL (yellow jersey): Leading standings: 1 L Armstrong (USA) US Postal 79hrs 7mins 49secs, 2 J Ullrich (Ger) Team Bianchi at 1.07, 3 A Vinokourov (Kaz) Team Telekom at 2.45, 4 Hr Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 5.16, 5 I Mayo (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 5.25, 6 T Hamilton (USA) Team CSC at 6.35, 7 I Basso (Ita) Fassa Bortolo at 8.08, 8 C Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole at 11.12, 9 F Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com at 16.05, 10 C Sastre (Spa) Team CSC at 16.12.
POINTS STANDINGS (green jersey): 1. McEwen 178 points 2. Cooke 176 3. Zabel 165 4. Hushovd 151 5. O'Grady 133 6. Paolini 132 7. Jean-Patrick Nazon (France) Jean Delatour 119 8. Guidi 107 9. Ullrich 104 10. Bram De Groot (Netherlands) Rabobank 99.
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN (polka-dot jersey) standings: 1. Richard Virenque (France) Quick Step 324 2. Laurent Dufaux (Switzerland) Alessio 187 3. Armstrong 168 4. Juna Miguel Mercado (Spain) Ibanesto.Com 133 5. Moreau 132 6. Mayo 130 7. Zubeldia 125 8. Ullrich 124 9. Hamilton 116 10. Paolo Bettini (Italy) Quick Step 100.
TEAM POINTS: 1. Team CSC 234 hours 35 minutes 12 seconds 2. Ibanesto.com 18:18 3. Euskaltel 40:27 4. U.S. Postal Service 47:22 5. Team Bianchi.
