DAY 2
Rouen - Forges-les-Eaux 192km
6th July 1997
Yellow Jersey lost to Super Mario!
Picture courtesy of VeloCity
Chris lost the Yellow Jersey today, on a day which favoured sprinters and
those lucky enough to avoid several crashes which happened during the stage!
Chris signed on at the start to the cheers of the crowd and the flashes of the
huge gang of press photographers. He signed some autographs, and had some
welcome words for the hundreds of Brits who'd made the trip to Rouen to cheer
on their hero.
When asked about the stage and the prospect of keeping the Yellow Jersey, he
replied..."it's in the lap of the peleton!" and that his tactics for the day
were to "sit in the peleton, and hope."
Mario Cipollini was in a good position to take the Jersey today after a fine
prologue performance where he finished only 18secs behind Chris. He took
advantage of time bonus PMU sprints during the stage and with a 1st and a 3rd
he claimed 8 seconds towards his cause.
Three riders jumped away and had a lead of over five minutes on the bunch.
The GAN team played it cool, leaving the chasing to the Saeco squad who were
obviously riding for their star Cipollini, who if he finished 1st or 2nd would
gain enough of a time bonus to take the Jersey from Chris. As it turned out he
powered to the finish, leading out and holding on to win!
The transfer of the Jersey will take the pressure of the Gan team and Saeco will
now be expected to chase down any break inorder to keep Mario in the Jersey.
A nasty crash brought down many big names, with about 10km to go. Zulle,
LeBlanc,Riis and Brochard were all affected and lost time on Chris who
rode near the front all day. The Zulle group came in 1minute 35 secs
down, a precious loss!
Result 192km Rouen - Forges-les-Eaux
1st M.Cipollini 4-39-20 2nd T.Steels st 3rd F.Moncassin st 4th E.Zabel st
Overall
1st M.Cipollini 4-48-09 2nd C.Boardman +10 3rd J.Ullrich +12 4th T.Rominger +15 5th A.Olano +20
Current Chris Status!