THE maillot jaune is never won easily, even in the flat opening week. When France's Frederic Moncassin finally pulled the coveted garment over his shoulders yesterday, his expression bore as much relief as joy that a fraught, 36-hour hunt for the Tour's golden fleece had finally reached a happy conclusion.
As the peloton entered the dead-straight final two kilometres, all Moncassin had to do was finish in third place. He fought hard for it, physically forcing the eventual stage winner, Erik Zabel of Germany, to relinquish pole position in the shelter of Mario Cipollini, winner on Monday.
Cipollini has already been sanctioned for similar skulduggery, but unlike Il Magnifico, Moncassin is playing on home soil and this will be ignored.
The 26-year-old Zabel took two stages last year and said: "I was a bit lucky. It was easier for me last year because nobody knew who I was. It's also more difficult for me to win stages this year, as my first duty is to help (Telekom team leader) Bjarne Riis."
Once the German made his winning effort, all Moncassin had to do to grab third place was hang on to the back wheel of the Italian as he attempted to come on terms.
The gaunt-faced Toulousain sprinter maison ("house fastman" as it were) in Chris Boardman's GAN team put himself in the frame with victory in Sunday's opening road stage in the Netherlands. Until the Tour reaches the mountains, finish sprints and intermediate sprints carry bonifications - a number of seconds deducted from a rider's overall time.
Moncassin landed 25 seconds on Sunday and, with plenty more on offer on Monday, his accession to the maillot jaune was seen as a formality. In fact, the ONCE team of Alex Zuelle, winner of Saturday's prologue, were positively willing the Frenchman to relieve them of the responsibility and physical effort of holding the lead.
At this stage they view the yellow jersey as essentially a distraction from the greater task of taking on Miguel Indurain, which begins when the race enters the Alps on Friday.
But on Monday it all went wrong. "We gave him the jersey on a plate," said an ONCE rider. Maybe, but Moncassin was too jittery to accept it. His nerve failed, he made elementary errors at key moments and ended the day a single, painful second behind Zuelle. That he was also a single point behind the Czech Republic's Jan Svorada in the battle for the green jersey merely added to the agony.
Moncassin's spell in yellow is unlikely to extend beyond Friday, but it is relief for Chris Boardtnan, who is now under no pressure to gain early publicity and can concentrate on his long-term objective of finishing this Tour. Like most of the field, the Wirral rider is already feeling the strain of four days racing in wind and rain. Yesterday he complained of ankle pain and a chest infection even before the peloton rode out across the plains of the Somme in half a gale, spring-like chill and the odd thunderstorm.
There is no shelter from the elements in northern France, where only church steeples and water towers break the skyline among the cornfields and occasional war cemeteries.
The thought of another day attempting to stay upright was too much for Italy's Enrico Zaina, who finished second in his home tour last month and was regarded as a dark horse for the mountains here. The Brescian will not even see the Alps, and he will probably not be the only casualty. Today's stage Soissons to Lac de Madine (145 miles).
