Sport

Flecha goes solo to hit bull's-eye

In a faint echo of the Tour's glorious past the name Banesto returned to the winner's podium yesterday

William Fotheringham
Fri Jul 18 2003 - 01:00

In a faint echo of the Tour's glorious past the name Banesto returned to the winner's podium yesterday. It is three years since the Spanish bank, which was once synonymous with Miguel Indurain, has known any significant success in the race "Big Mig" dominated for half-a-decade and much has changed since then.

Blue still predominates on the jersey, but the team is now known as iBanesto.com, to publicise the bank's internet arm. Their leader at present is Francisco Mancebo, the best young rider in the 2000 Tour, who is handily placed in fourth but has so far shown no signs of being able to do more than cling to Lance Armstrong's wheel.

Alongside him are a bevy of cheap identikit Russians, young hopefuls such as yesterday's victor here, Juan-Antonio Flecha, and old workhorses like their last Tour stage winner Vicente Garcia-Acosta. At the end of this season the team management's contract with the bank ends and the stable that won six Tours between 1988 and 1995 will close unless a new backer is found.

Flecha's win yesterday was superbly executed, a solo attack at high speed eight miles from the finish along roads he knows intimately from visiting his Toulousaine girlfriend. Perhaps it will bring in the sponsor the team needs, but unfortunately it does not change the bigger picture: Indurain's old management have won just one of the three major Tours since the departure of their golden boy.

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Yesterday was again extremely fast, the 95 miles run at an average of almost 27 m.p.h. in blinding heat. Flecha was in a lead group of eight who never enjoyed more than a five-minute lead on the peloton. Indeed, the pack chased hard, shedding 60 riders in the final kilometres, proof that the heatwave is sapping the strength of many of the 167 survivors.

At the finish Flecha produced a unique victory salute as he crossed the line. He simulated the action of a bowman - a pun on his surname, which is the Spanish for arrow. "I did that for my first professional wins, but a friend told me recently that I'd lost my aim or my arrow was broken, so this is for him," he explained.

Today it is over to Armstrong and he simply cannot afford to miss. The first individual time trial, over 29-and-a-bit miles, takes place after the first mountain stages, so the climbers such as Iban Mayo and Mancebo are within reach of Armstrong.

In addition the Texan was unable - for the first time in the last five Tours - to open a decisive gap in the opening mountain-top finish, at l'Alpe d'Huez, so Alexander Vinokourov, Jan Ullrich and Tyler Hamilton are also breathing down his neck.

Tomorrow is the first of three days of climbing in the Pyrenees and without a decent cushion - approaching three minutes - that would be a daunting prospect. Vinokourov for one has amply proved his willingness to attack and Mayo and his Basque team-mates will be performing in front of hordes of their fellow countrymen. All of that makes today, in Armstrong's words, "the most important time trial in the last five Tours".

STAGE 11 (Narbonne to Toulouse, 155.5km): 1 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spain) iBanesto.com three hours 29 minutes 33 seconds; 2 Bram De Groot (Netherlands) Rabobank at 4 secs, 3 Isidro Nozal (Spain) ONCE same time; 4 Inigo Cuesta (Spain) Cofidis 15; 5 Carlos Da Cruz (France) FDJeux.com 23, 6 Stuart O'Grady (Australia) Credit Agricole, 7 Nicolas Portal (France) AG2R, 8 Michael Rogers (Australia) Quick Step all same time; 9 Robbie McEwen (Australia) Lotto 42; 10. Baden Cooke (Australia) FDJeux.com same time.

OVERALL (Yellow jersey): 1 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal 49:16:37, 2 Alexander Vinokourov (Kazakhstan) Team Telekom at 21 secs, 3 Iban Mayo (Spain) Euskatel 1:02, 4 Francisco Mancebo (Spain) iBanesto.com 1:37, 5 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Team CSC 1:52, 6 Jan Ullrich (Germany) Team Bianchi 2:10, 7 Ivan Basso (Italy) Fassa Bortolo 2:25, 8 Roberto Heras (Spain) US Postal 2:28, 9 Haimar Zubeldia (Spain) Euskatel 3:25, 10. Denis Menchov (Russia) iBanesto.com 3:45

POINTS (Green jersey): 1 Baden Cooke (Australia) FDJeux.com 156 points, 2 Robbie McEwen (Australia) Lotto 148, 3 Erik Zabel (Germany) Team Telekom 126, 4 Stuart O'Grady (Australia) Credit Agricole 122, 5 Thor Hushovd (Norway) Credit Agricole 120.

KING OF THE MOUNTAIN (Polka-dot jersey): 1 Richard Virenque (France) Quick Step 135, 2 Jorg Jaksche (Germany) ONCE 75, 3 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal 74, 4 Ivan Parra (Colombia) Kelme 71, 5 Aitor Garmendia (Spain) Team Bianchi 62.

TEAM POINTS: 1 iBanesto.com 145:03:28, 2 Team CSC at 15 secs 3 Euskatel 11:24, 4 US Postal 15:35 5 Cofidis 21:06