From PWALTERS@delphi.com Wed Jul 5 08:09:21 1995 Return-Path: Received: from mx4.u.washington.edu by lists.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW95.05/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA23287; Wed, 5 Jul 95 08:09:20 -0700 Received: from bos1b.delphi.com by mx4.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW95.05/UW-NDC Revision: 2.31 ) id AA18461; Wed, 5 Jul 95 08:09:19 -0700 Received: from delphi.com by delphi.com (PMDF V4.3-9 #10880) id <01HSIC1NKZR49BWFTJ@delphi.com>; Wed, 05 Jul 1995 11:09:15 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 05 Jul 1995 11:09:14 -0400 (EDT) From: "Patrick D. Walters" Subject: To: uwracing@u.washington.edu Message-Id: <01HSIC1NL9EA9BWFTJ@delphi.com> X-Vms-To: INTERNET"uwracing@u.washington.edu" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT 17 4-JUL-1995 13:29 Cycling-Unheralded Italian gives leader a fright By Francois Thomazeau ALENCON, France (Reuter) - Obscure Italian rider Ivan Gotti came within eight seconds of robbing Laurent Jalabert of Tour de France leadership Tuesday when the team time trial shook up the overall standings. Gotti, a climbing specialist making his Tour debut and with no career wins to his name, profited from a magnificent third stage ride by his Italian Gewiss Ballan team who covered the 67 km from Mayenne in one hour 13 minutes 10 seconds. Frenchman Jalabert had confidently expected to retain the yellow jersey he won in the second stage Monday with the help of his star-studded Spanish ONCE team, dubbed the AC Milan of cycling. Gotti, the best-placed Gewiss Ballan rider, was a lowly 26th overall overnight, 43 seconds behind Jalabert, but when ONCE found themselves 35 seconds down on the Italian team with 25 km left, it looked like the writing was on the wall for the Frenchman. Only supreme efforts by Jalabert and his team mates kept ONCE in the frame as they finished second in 1:13:45, 24 seconds ahead of Miguel Indurain's third-placed Banesto team. Jalabert confessed afterwards he knew nothing of Gotti, now second overall, and had not even realised he was a threat. "I didn't know he was so close in the overall standings," the Frenchman said. "I would have been very surprised to have lost the yellow jersey to him. "But it was not possible for us to have done more today. We all rode flat out but Gewiss Ballan produced an extraordinary performance." The Gewiss Ballan victory was a personal triumph for Russian team leader Yevgeny Berzin, winner of the Giro d'Italia last year and one of Indurain's main rivals even though he is riding in his first Tour de France. Berzin moved up to eighth, 35 seconds behind Jalabert but, more importantly, went ahead of Indurain and the other chief candidate for overall victory, Swiss Tony Rominger. "I didn't come here anticipating to win my first Tour but everyone is expecting so much of me, I'll be there," the Russian said. Rominger was one of the main victims of the day. His Mapei-GB team had to wait for him when he had a puncture, which he said was his first since last year's Tour, and he lost more than 1.5 minutes on Berzin's outfit. Gotti owed his high placing to Saturday's prologue time trial when he started early in the sunshine and produced a good time before all the favourites were hampered by a storm. Dane Bjarne Riis, fifth in the Tour in 1993 and another Gewiss Ballan rider, moved up to third overall, nine seconds behind Jalabert. "The whole team functioned so well today," he said. "Our ride was just perfect." Jalabert has every chance of retaining the yellow jersey on the flat stages he favours in northern France and Belgium before Sunday's individual time trial between the Belgian towns of Huy and Seraing. Wednesday's fourth stage takes the race a further 162 km from Alencon to Le Havre. .