CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE : Bauer Holds 10-Second Lead After Second Stage

Steve Bauer of Canada raced into the lead of the Tour de France on Sunday with a performance that brought back memories of 1988.

In the morning, Bauer was fourth in the first stage, an 86-mile loop near Poitiers in central France. That put him in the leader’s yellow jersey, the same place he was after the first stage in ’88.

However, unlike two years ago, he held it through the afternoon team time trial. His 7-Eleven team, paced by American Andy Hampsten, came in sixth. Bauer finished the 27.5-mile course in 54 minutes 12 seconds to gain a 10-second overall lead over Frans Maassen of the Netherlands.

“The key to keeping the yellow jersey is a good performance by my 7-Eleven team,” Bauer said. “But Monday is another day and there are bonuses to take and Maassen is a good sprinter.”

Intermediate sprint bonuses count for six seconds deduction and stage winners can also gain precious seconds in a mass finish.

Maassen won the morning stage but his Buckler team couldn’t help him overtake Bauer in the afternoon. Buckler ended with a time of 54:20. Panasonic’s team won with 53:24.

Ronan Pensec, a member of Greg LeMond’s Z team, is third overall, 26 seconds back of Bauer. Defending champion LeMond is more than 10 minutes behind Bauer in 34th. Laurent Fignon of France is 28th, five seconds ahead of LeMond.

After Saturday’s prologue and Sunday’s two races around Poitiers, the teams head to Nantes on Monday with a 141.5-mile stretch northwest.

Bauer, a 31-year-old from Fenwick, Ontario, was 19th in the opening prologue, 21 seconds behind Thierry Marie, who held the lead for one day.

In ‘88, Bauer led after the first stage then lost it in the team trial in the afternoon. He regained it for four more stages between the ninth and 12th stages before giving it up to eventual winner Pedro Delgado of Spain. Bauer ended up fourth that year.

Delgado, winner of the ’88 Tour and a popular pick to win this year, is 111th after the second stage, 11:58 behind Bauer. Last year Delgado fell behind quickly when he was over three minutes late for the prologue, but he managed to make up the lost time and is considered one of the strongest climbers in the Tour.

Now the Tour is similar to 1988 with a week of relatively flat races before the Tour enters the Alps on July 10, heading into Switzerland.

“There could be a lot of changes in the first week,” Bauer said. “But I hope to keep most of the jersey until we hit the mountains.”

The Alps and the Pyrenees stages are considered to be the true tests of the Tour, and Bauer realizes that his lead could evaporate quickly in the coming weeks.

“Maybe 10 minutes is a lot of a lead over LeMond,” Bauer said. “But it’s not that much at the beginning of three weeks of the Tour de France.”

Bauer gained that big lead over LeMond and the others in the morning. Bauer joined three others on an early break and just kept moving away.

“I just went and followed them,” Bauer said. “When the lead got to be 10 minutes I thought it was just about five minutes.”

In the final sprint, Maassen won the stage in 3:19:01. Pensec was second. Claudio Chiappucci of Italy was third and Bauer fourth.

Denmark’s John Carlsen was fifth. Most of the pack, including LeMond, finished 10:35 behind.

Raul Alcala, winner of the Tour de Trump, is in fifth place, 9:57 behind Bauer.