Djamolidine Abdujaparov, once a dare-devil fearless sprinter, showed the other side of his character by dousing French hopes with a solo victory on the Bastille Day stage of the 1996 Tour de France after a tough uphill finish in Tulle. A few years ago, the thought of the Uzbekistani sprinter winning a stage of the Tour de France in such a way would have provoked disbelief, but age has mellowed the 32-year-old, whose sprinting prowess has in the past netted three successes in the Tour's points competition.
In the past two years, Abdu has become a cannier rider, infiltrating quality breakaways, as the knowledge dawned that his speed in the mass sprints was diminishing.
So when he slipped into a mid-stage escape with TVM's Bo Hamburger, Motorola's hopeful Laurent Madouas, GAN's excellent prospect Didier Rous, Marco Gualdi of Polti and French die-hard Thierry Bourgignon of Aubervilliers, the man who once flew down the Champs Elysees sideways knew that the moment was right. "It was a quality break and I was confident that we'd stay away because none of us posed a threat overall," Abdu explained after the finish. But while he celebrated his unprecedented climbing success, the stage had been earlier ignited by an extraordinary breakaway almost immediately as the day's racing began, on the approach to the second category climb of the Col de la Croix Morand, after 21.5 kilometers.
Initiated by Festina duo Richard Virenque and Luc Leblanc, the break of 13 included all the main favorites -- Bjarne Riis, Evgeni Berzin, Abraham Olano, Jan Ullrich, Peter Luttenberger -- but cut adrift a surprised Miguel Indurain and Switzerland's Tony Rominger, who is still battling to overcome his injury problems.
With alarm bells ringing loud and clear in the Banesto camp, Indurain sent his teammates to the front of the race in pursuit, but after 45 kilometers, the break's lead was up to a minute. "I'll take every opportunity," said Riis when the day was done. True to his word, he rode at the front, waving the others through whenever the pace threatened to falter. But ONCE and Kelme were enlisted to form a Spanish alliance which soon saw the peloton make up its lost ground. After 60 kilometers of the stage (that is, 39 kilometers of pursuit), the race came back together. It was TVM's Hamburger who initiated the next significant move after 76 kilometers and soon, as 16 lowly placed riders gave chase, the decisive break of six formed with 55 kilometers remaining.
Behind them, the peloton slumbered in the mid-afternoon heat and let the break slip away. With 25 kilometers still to race, their lead was 4:25, and as they passed under the 20-kilometers-to-go banner, they led by more than five minutes.
With huge crowds enjoying the baking heat on Bastille Day, expectations were high that either Madouas, Rous or Bourgignon would respect French honor and take the stage victory. Alas, Abdu hadn't read the script, and with the canniness becoming a man whose off-road hobby is pigeon-fancying, the 32-year-old jumped clear of his colleagues, just two kilometers from the line, to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Abandons:
Thomas Fleischer (Ger), Lotto; Marco Della Vedova (It) Brescialat; Franck
Bouyer (Fr), Agrigel
Eliminations:
Marek Lesniewski (Pol), Aubervilliers; Vladimir Poulnikov (Ukr), TVM;
Daisuje Imanaka (Jap), Polti
General Classification:
No change
Points classification:
Erik Zabel (Ger), Telekom
Mountains classification:
Richard Virenque (Fr), Festina
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