But a victory as prestigious as the Tour's final sprint on the Champs Elysees is always worth waiting for, and the MG/Technogym rider's broad grin showed that all those disappointments were put far behind him. The Tour's final stage is usually little more than a promenade (although Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon would be happy to tell you otherwise), with the race only beginning in earnest as the field gets sight of the Eiffel Tower and nears the Champs Elysees.
Otherwise, time is taken up by the now traditional round of goofing and photo-calls, with overall winner Bjarne Riis, points winner Erik Zabel, and mountains winner Richard Virenque posing together for the photographers. Appropriately, Telekom led the race as the field entered the center of Paris, with Riis resplendent in yellow, while Virenque launched a fiery attack as they neared the famous cobbles of the Champs Elysees.
But the first real move came from Carrera's Massimo Podenzana, Andrea Tafi of Mapei/GB, Motorola's Flavio Vanzella, and Lotto's 1994 Paris-Roubaix champion Andrei Tchmil. The foursome's intent was deadly serious, and as the field picked up the pace, too, their lead grew to almost 40 seconds. But the world famous avenue is unforgiving, and with their quarry always in sight, the peloton steadily reeled in the escapees.
A kilometer from the line, it was all over, and with GAN thinking of Frederic Moncassin, Telekom working for Erik Zabel, and TVM massing to support Jeroen Blijlevens, Baldato cut a lonely figure as they rounded the final corner, some 500 meters from the line. But even though he was forced to lead from the front, the Italian held on impressively to put himself in the frame for the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympic road race.
1. Fabio Baldato (Ita) MG/Technogym 147.5 km in 3:30:44
2. Frederic Moncassin (Fra) GAN s.t.
3. Jeroen Blijlevens (Hol) TVM s.t.
4. Djamolidin Abdoujaparov (Uzb) Refin s.t.
5. Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom s.t.
Points classification:
Erik Zabel (Ger) Telekom
Mountains classification:
Richard Virenque (Fra) Festina
Final General classification
1. Bjarne Riis (Den) Telekom 3,764.9 kms in 95:57:16
2. Jan Ullrich (Ger) Telekom at 1:41
3. Richard Virenque (Fra) Festina at 4:37
4. Laurent Dufaux (Switz) Festina at 5:53
5. Peter Luttenberger (Aus) Carrera at 7:07
129 finishers out of 197 starters
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