TOUR DE FRANCE:THE TOUR de France has many charms, and one of them is provided each morning by Andre Puzin, a 62-year-old painter from Paris, who sets up his easel in the temporary village at the starting point of every stage and, surrounded by breakfasting sponsors and their guests, begins work on a 1.5-metre by 2.4-metre watercolour depicting the leaders. He gives himself an hour to complete his work, and the result is presented to the mayor of the ville depart.
Yesterday, at the start of the 18th stage, he painted Carlos Sastre in the overall leader's yellow jersey and Bernhard Kohl in the polka-dots of the mountain king, against a background of the vertical cliffs overlooking the town of Bourg-d'Oisans. This morning, since nothing changed as a result of yesterday's racing, he will have to work on a new representation of the same riders for the benefit of the mayor of Roanne, from where the remaining 140 riders will set out towards Montlucon.
But the Tour is not entirely a matter of such pleasing gestures. Yesterday morning a car driven by the father of the two Schleck brothers was stopped by French customs officials shortly after leaving Bourg-d'Oisans and subjected to a half-hour search, after which Johnny Schleck was allowed to continue. Later the officials announced nothing had been found.
Frank Schleck, who wore the yellow jersey earlier this week, and his brother Andy, who is wearing the white jersey of the Tour's best young rider, are from Luxembourg and ride for the CSC-Saxo Bank team. Aged 28 and 23 respectively, they have been dope-tested after several stages even though the team has instituted its own, independently verified testing programme this year.
Their 65-year-old father, who now drives a car carrying guests of the team's sponsors, raced in the 1960s and 1970s for the Bic and Pelforth teams. Yesterday the customs officials, who were waiting at a roundabout near the village of Vizille, jumped the gun by first apprehending a Luxembourg-registered car driven by a journalist. Soon afterwards they spotted Johnny Schleck's white Skoda and brought it to a halt.
"We were looking for doping substances but the check was negative so we let him go," a customs spokesman later told Reuters, whose reporter witnessed the incident.
The search is further evidence of the authorities' coordinated effort to expose doping. When they concentrated earlier in the race on Riccardo Ricco, the winner of two stages, they hit the bullseye. But Frank Schleck is said to have been tested seven times this Tour, including once by the Italian Olympic Committee when the race crossed the border to Prato Nevoso on Sunday - without result.
The two Schlecks, second and 12th in the overall standings, finished almost seven minutes behind yesterday's winner, among a group of 81 riders that included all the contenders for the general classification. Nothing changed in the race situation and, since nothing is likely to change in today's flattish stage either, all thoughts are now concentrated on tomorrow's time-trial, in which Cadel Evans of Australia, currently fourth, is favoured to expunge the deficit of one minute 34 seconds separating him from Sastre.
Given that the leaders resumed their game of chess, spectators were grateful for the entertainment provided by Marcus Burghardt, a 25-year-old German with Team Columbia, and Carlos Barredo, a 27-year-old Spaniard with Quick Step. Setting off on a break after 80km, they kept each other company as the race left the Alps and rolled across the Loire through typical France profonde scenery of sunflower fields, family grandstands made out of hay bales, roundabouts decorated with garlanded bikes and hand-lettered posters condemning the use of EPO.
They paced each other up the category-two climb of the Croix de Montvieux, with the Spaniard leading through the crowds of spectators. On the descent to St Etienne, with a four-minute lead over their nearest pursuers, the game of cat and mouse began.
Barredo, the mouse, would jump ahead, only for the two-metre tall Burghardt to reel him in with a few revolutions of his pedals. They tried feints and swerves, they tried bluffing each other by rising out of the saddle as if to accelerate and then sitting back down, they freewheeled, they tried everything short of coming to a dead stop like track sprinters. Barredo even attacked, unsuccessfully, while Burghardt was having trouble zipping up his jersey.
But the German, who somersaulted over a dog in last year's Tour, had the last laugh, unleashing his final assault with 150 metres to go to leave Barredo beating his handlebars with rage.
Guardian Service
STAGE 18 Bourg d'Oisans to Saint etienne, 196.5km
1 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) Team Columbia 4hrs 30mins 21secs, 2 Carlos Barredo Llamazales (Spa) Quick Step at same time, 3 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel at 3.33, 4 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Credit Agricole at same time, 5 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi at 3.35, 6 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis - Le Credit par Telephone at 6.39, 7 Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale at same time, 8 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas at same time, 9 Leif Hoste (Bel) Silence - Lotto at same time, 10 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank at same time, 11 Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank at 6.50, 12 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram at same time, 13 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole at same time, 14 Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis - Le Credit par Telephone at same time, 15 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Liquigas at same time.
General classification:1 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 79hrs 16mins 14secs, 2 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank at 1.24, 3 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner at 1.33, 4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto at 1.34, 5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank at 2.39, 6 Christian Vande Velde (US) Team Garmin-Chipotle at 4.41, 7 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at 5.35, 8 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi at 5.52, 9 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) AG2R La Mondiale at 8.10, 10 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale at 8.24, 11 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia at 8.35, 12 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank at 10.04, 13 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas at 12.02, 14 Sandy Casar (Fra) Francaise des Jeux at 17.08, 15 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi at 20.07.
King of the Mountains:1. Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 125pts, 2. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC 80, 3. Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC 80, 4. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bouygues Telecom 65, 5. John-Lee Augustyn (Rsa) Barloworld 61.
Sprinters:1. Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank 229pts, 2. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 180, 3. Erik Zabel (Ger) Milram 176, 4. Kim Kirchen (Lux) Columbia 145, 5. Leonardo Duque (Col) Cofidis 144.
