Tour de France : Spain’s Delgado Is New Leader as Echave Wins the 20th Stage

Pedro Delgado of Spain Tuesday took the overall lead in the Tour de France bicycle race from Stephen Roche of Ireland while another Spaniard, Federico Echave, won the 125-mile 20th stage.

Echave’s time of 5 hours 52 minutes 11 seconds gave him a 1:32 victory over a third Spaniard, Anselmo Fuerte.

Delgado finished seventh in the stage, 3:44 behind Echave, but he left Roche behind on a long, steep final climb to l’Alpe d’Huez to take an overall lead of 25 seconds over Roche.

Delgado is the third rider in three days to wear the leader’s yellow jersey. Roche took it from Jean-Francois Bernard of France on Monday after Bernard had taken it from Charly Mottet of France, who had worn the jersey a week.

Roche, who began the day with a 1:17 lead over Delgado, could not find the strength to respond when Herrera and Delgado broke. He finished 15th, 5:28 back.

At Villard de Lans, France, Mieke Havik of the Netherlands won the 11th stage of the women’s Tour de France cycling race in 2 hours 42 minutes 38 seconds, but Italy’s Maria Canins retained the overall lead (two seconds).

Although the chasing group gained ground on the descent to Villard de Lans, Havik had made enough early ground to beat Tea Vikstedt-Nyman of Finland into second place, 1 minute 59 seconds behind.