CYCLING / TOUR DE FRANCE : Fignon Quits After Being Hampered by Wreck

The expected Tour de France clash between Greg LeMond and France’s Laurent Fignon had yet to materialize in this, the 97th tour, and Wednesday Fignon ascertained that it will not.

He dropped out of the race during the fifth stage, a 187-mile rain-soaked cycle through northern France, after falling victim to several mishaps that wore on him mentally and physically over the past three days. The final straw, apparently, was an incident at the 77-mile mark in which several riders fell and held back a larger group, including Fignon.

It was the second consecutive day in which Fignon has been hampered by a crash involving others. Tuesday, Fignon was halted behind a wreck that cost him 44 seconds to the pack and LeMond. It dropped Fignon to 47th place among 197 riders, more than 11 minutes behind the leaders.

After a refreshment break Wednesday, he slowed, turned and rode against the pack, looking for his team car. He got off the bike and entered the car, officially quitting the race for the third time in five years after winning in 1983 and ’84 and after losing by only eight seconds to LeMond a year ago.

Fignon refused to talk to reporters, but the director of his Castorama team, Cyrille Guimard, said, “It’s been a bad year. He’s cursed.”

Canadian Steve Bauer retained the yellow jersey of overall tour leader, even though he finished well back in the pack in the longest leg of the three-week tour. Dutch rider Gerrit Solleveld won the race in 7 hours 43 minutes 7 seconds, more than four minutes faster than second-place John Museeuw of Belgium.

Bauer leads Ronan Pensec of France by 30 seconds and Frans Maassen of the Netherlands by 33 seconds. LeMond finished 23rd Wednesday, 4:30 behind Solleveld. He is 23rd overall, 10:41 back.

The Tour riders are off today.