Tour de France : Mottet Finishes Second but Takes Overall Lead

Frenchman Charles Mottet took the overall leader’s yellow jersey Friday after finishing second in the 10th stage of the Tour de France behind Irishman Stephen Roche.

Roche, of the strong Carrera team, won the 54-mile leg, an individual time trial from Saumur to Futuroscope, in a time of 1 hour 58 minutes 11 seconds, an average speed of 27.5 m.p.h.

Mottet finished 42 seconds behind and was jubilant after his ride in hot weather.

“To wear the yellow jersey is every cyclist’s dream,” Mottet said. “It’s great.”

Switzerland’s Erich Maechler had worn the jersey, having led the overall standings since July 4.

Jesper Skibby of Denmark was third Friday, 53 seconds off the pace.

In eighth place overall and 1:36 behind after Thursday’s ninth stage, Mottet gained 2:42 over Maechler to take over the overall lead. He now heads the tour by 47 seconds, ahead of West German Dietrich Thurau. In third place is Jorg Muller of Switzerland, 50 seconds behind.

Maechler is fourth, 1:06 off the pace, while Roche has moved up from 26th to sixth, reducing his deficit from 5:41 to 3:23.

Monique Knol of the Netherlands won the second stage of the women’s race in a sprint and took the overall lead.

Defending champion Jeannie Longo finished fourth in the 53.4-mile stage in the same time as Knol, 2:11:52.

Knol capitalized on bonus points to move into first place in the overall standings with a total time of 3:56.05. Longo is 12 seconds behind.

Finishing second in Friday’s stage was Laima Zilporite of the Soviet Union, with Jutta Niehaus of West Germany third. They had the same time as the winner. Zilporite is third in the overall standings.