TOUR DE FRANCE : LeMond Uses His Head to Handle Desperate Strategy

After Saturday’s individual time trial, many of the 194 competitors in the Tour de France have little, if any, chance of winning with two weeks left before the July 28 finish in Paris.

So, Sunday they resorted to a game of cat-and-mouse in an attempt to unravel Tour leader Greg LeMond, who remained 1 minute 13 seconds ahead of second place Erik Breukink of the Netherlands after the 161-mile stage from Alencon to Rennes.

The next two relatively flat stages today and Tuesday are expected to have much of the same tactics.

That means reckless attacking from the pack. In an effort to combat this unpredictable situation, LeMond is using high-tech strategy.

He said Sunday that he attached a two-way radio inside his helmet so he could keep tabs on the race through his Z team director, Roger Legeay, who rides in a support vehicle behind the racers.

“I knew the closest one was 6:55 or seven minutes (ahead during the stage),” he said, adding that he was not concerned because the leader was not a serious contender.

LeMond said he and teammates were more worried about Italy’s Gianni Bugno and Claudio Chiappucci, Spain’s Miguel Indurain and Mexico’s Raul Alcala, none of whom gained on the Tour leader Sunday.

The stage was eventually won by Brazil’s Mauro Ribeiro, a one-time world junior champion, in 3 hours 40 minutes 51 seconds. LeMond and his main challengers finished in a bunch 53 seconds back. Ribeiro’s victory marked the first time a Brazilian has won a stage of the Tour de France.

But there was little change in the overall standings.

LeMond said many riders are so far down that they “are attacking just to attack. It makes it difficult.”

“I can’t let a guy like Bugno or Breukink take the lead from me,” he said. “That wouldn’t be good. So, I really have no choice (but to keep the lead).”

LeMond said the mountain stages, which will begin Thursday in Pau, loom with uncertainty. He said for some of the favorites, it will be a “do or die” situation.

“I’m sure a guy like Indurain, (Pedro) Delgado, or Jean-Francoise Bernard or Bugno, they’re all just going to go, ‘Jeez, it’s either I just attack and kill myself, and it either succeeds or it doesn’t.’

“It will be a very difficult race for me to control. It is far from being over.”