ONE of the many unwritten rules of the Tour de France is that the team with the yellow jersey does not get greedy and stop the teams with no interest in the overall rankings from going for stage wins.

A week ago, voices were raised when the Telekom team of Bjarne Riis prevented a fellow Dane, Rolf Sorensen, from winning since then they have learned their lesson, and not a single stage has gone by without the lesser lights being given their head and taking their stage victories.

Yesterday the underdogs had their day again. It should be made clear that, in the Tour, underdog is a relative term of the six men who fought out the finish, two will ride in the Olympics for their respective countries Italy's Michele Bartoli and Australian Neil Stephens.

The day's eventual winner, Massimo Podenzana, has twice been Italian national champion. Another of the breakaways, Chris Board man's team mate Francois Lemarchand, is in his 10th Tour. Underdogs they were, but not mere nobodies.

Of the other two, Italian Giuseppe Guerini and Belgian Peter Van Petegem, the latter was literally along for the ride. For 100 miles, as his five companions shared the pace at the front, he cruised along in their slipstream, ignoring their requests that he give at least some symbolic assistance.

This parasitical behaviour is, known as "wheel sucking". In this case, the parasite did not kill its victim Van Petegem's conduct politely described as "unsporting" by Lemarchand merely made his five companions determined that he should not win at any price.

As a result, when Podenzana leapt away approaching the finish, his four fellow workers all looked at the Belgian as if to say that, if he wanted to win, now was the time that he should work for it. By the time he had made his mind up, Podenzana was set fair for the first Tour stage win of his lengthy career.

The 34 year old never really expected to be here and wept for joy at the finish. Left high and dry when his team went bust in mid season, he was rescued in extremes by Claudio Chiappucci's Carrera team. Given that the "devil" is a mere shadow of a few years ago, when he was Indurain's principal challenger for the Tour, it was a shrewd move on their part.

For over 15 years the jeans chain have sponsored teams including stars such as Stephen Roche, Chiappucci and Marco? Pantani this year that is set to end, and, should their climber Peter Luttenberger fail to deliver in the Pyrenees, Podenzana's win will be a fitting swan song.

Today will see the waiting game end. The battle for the yellow jersey is bound to take precedence as the race enters the Pyrenees with a stage finish at the Hautacam ski resort, just south of Lourdes. The climb to the bleak summit gains 3,000 feet in some eight miles, and was the scene of one of Indurain's finest displays of power riding when he destroyed the field here two years ago and effectively won his fourth Tour.

This time round, Indurain is not in a situation where one long burst on the accelerator can win him the race. Today, tomorrow and on Thursday, he will need to chip away at Riis' lead of almost five minutes. "Observe and attack, observe and attack," is how his manager described their policy yesterday morning.

Today: Agen-Lourdes Hautacam, 199km.