It’s a Day Off for Tour de France, but Racers Can’t Afford to Rest

On the only rest day of the three-week Tour de France, leader Greg LeMond went for a training ride.

LeMond, who is leading Soviet sprinter Djamolidine Abdoujaparov by 51 seconds, rode for about 2 hours. LeMond and most of the 183 other competitors left in the Tour did some sort of training ride near Pau to prepare for today’s grueling mountain stage to Jaca, Spain.

“If you took the day off, you would die the next day,” LeMond told broadcaster Brian Drebber. “We went up good hills at a hard pace. You want to keep your body in the rhythm of racing.”

LeMond and his Z teammates will have the difficult task of stopping mountain attacks by three Banesto cyclists who are expected to challenge now that Erik Breukink of the Netherlands has dropped out because of illness.

LeMond, a three-time winner of the Tour, said it will be difficult to control the race against Miguel Indurain of Spain, who is third, 2 minutes 17 seconds behind; Jean-Francois Bernard of France, who is fourth, 3:11 back, and Pedro Delgado of Spain, who is eighth, 4:30 back.