Would he attack today or make his bid for glory on tomorrow’s epic Pyrenean trawl to Pamplona? His team manager, Jose Miguel Echavarri, wasn’t giving much away, saying only that tomorrow’s 262 kilometers posed a range of opportunities. Such as? "Well, ideally Miguel would escape on the Port de Larrau, when a lot of the other favorites are suffering. Then, we’d hope to get teammates across to him to try and open the gap," he confided, "but, of course, that’s all hypothetical." Yes, indeed.
"Until now," Echavarri continued, "Miguel’s biggest problem hasn’t been Riis — it’s been the weather. When Riis says he’s the strongest, he’s not bluffing, but he’s certainly wrong. For the moment, he’s the best positioned. He’s been the best rider of the second week, but he forgets that there’s a third week and that’s the only one that counts in a big Tour ...."
Alas, poor Miguel and poor Banesto. But Riis, as seen in this afternoon’s showing, is neither bluffing nor mistaken. The Dane spoiled the Sun King’s 32nd birthday with merciless efficiency. Afterwards, he sat, exhausted, talking to the press, smiling briefly as his entrance was greeted by applause. But he had a distant look in his eyes, drained of all interest in the proceedings. What gear ratio had he used on the relentlessly steep climb to Hautacam?
A shrug. "I don’t know. Something inhuman," he muttered wearily before finally returning to his surroundings. "It was 53 x 39 and 13 x 21. I felt very strong today and I wanted to take advantage of it while I could. When I saw that the others were struggling as they tried to follow the rhythm, I decided to attack, not at 100 percent, but just to make them hurt more and see what happened. It worked so I decided to go all out."
"It certainly hurt me, and I’m sure it hurt them," he confessed before asserting that "you have to make big sacrifices if you want to win." Meanwhile, French hopes of a podium place in Paris rest with Richard Virenque, but even Festina’s chirpy climber seemed demoralized by Riis’ peerless performance.
"He attacked two, maybe three times and then went very hard," said the 26-year-old. "I watched Indurain, but I saw that he couldn’t do anything about it. So I chased with Dufaux, thinking that three or four of us could bridge up to him, but he was just too strong. Riis showed that he was the boss — he attacked and made the race all alone."
But, Riis hadn’t forgotten the woes of his Spanish predecessor. "It’s clear that he’s not in good form, and I’m sorry that it looks as if he won’t be on the podium in Paris. I only hope he can win tomorrow when the race gets to Pamplona ...."