Singing Indurain : Many Are Conceding Tour to Spaniard, Who Is Stealing Olympic Thunder

The Barcelona Games are eight days away, but it is difficult to tell by reading the Spanish sporting press. In the year of Spain, the focus today is on the Tour de France, where 172 riders are about to tackle the race’s most challenging stages through the Alps.

How a bicycle race can overshadow the Summer Olympics in the host country is difficult to comprehend. But then, the Spanish are wild about Miguel Indurain of Navarre, a Basque town.

Indurain, riding for the Spanish Banesto team, stunned his opponents Monday when he won a 41-mile time trial by three minutes over teammate Armand de las Cuevas. He was at least 3 1/2 minutes faster than the race’s other favorites.

Time-trial victories usually are measured in seconds. The way Indurain, 27, the defending Tour champion, blitzed his opponents changed the race’s complexion. The challengers will be under heavy pressure to mount a successful attack in the mountains this weekend or give up any hopes of winning the Tour.

As the riders enjoyed the Tour’s only rest day Thursday in Dole, France, Indurain was second in the general classification, 1 minute 27 seconds behind Pascal Lino of France. Still, a headline in El Mundo Deportivo of Barcelona screamed, “Indurain Has the Tour Almost Won.”

The tabloid devoted its first nine pages to the Tour. El Pais, Spain’s national daily, used four of its five sports pages for Tour coverage. The Olympics were relegated to small type.

Even Tour director Jean-Marie LeBlanc was conceding the race.

“It’s a massacre,” he told El Mundo Deportivo. “Nobody can hope to make up this difference. His rivals have been hurt psychologically.”

The reason Spanish reporters and so many in the international cycling community say the race is over is the strength of Indurain’s teammates and his remarkable time-trial skill.

Like Indurain, the Banesto domestiques , or workers, have not been pressed through 12 days of riding. Pedro Delgado, the team’s second-best rider, is ninth, 7:01 behind Lino.

When the serious racing begins today in the mountains, Banesto is expected to have the reserves to control the pace and stop any attack. Indurain’s challengers are expected to form an alliance to try to break the Spaniard.

Judging from Monday’s time trial in Luxembourg, they will need at least a four-minute lead before the final time trial from Tours to Blois on July 24. That means they need to gain about seven minutes on their rival in the mountains.

Depending on what happens to the challengers, Indurain could soon seize the yellow jersey as the overall leader. Lino, who has done surprisingly well as the leader for nine days, is not considered a strong climber. Conventional wisdom says he will drop in the standings.

Therefore, Indurain is more concerned with those trailing him. He leads third-place Stephen Roche of Ireland by 2:48, fourth-place Greg LeMond by 3:00, fifth-place Gianni Bugno by 3:12, and sixth-place Claudio Chiappucci by 3:27. Those are his main challengers, although Roche, who has back problems, is not considered a serious threat.

Brian Searchinger, marketing director for Greg LeMond Bicycles, said LeMond could race comfortably to finish among the top three. To win his fourth Tour de France will be more difficult.

LeMond, 31, admitted Thursday that he is struggling. He had to fight to stay in contention Wednesday in the Vosges mountains. The next three days go through some of the most challenging passes in France--starting with today’s 166-mile leg to St. Gervais and Mont Blanc.

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” LeMond told reporters. “I’m exhausted. It’s incredible, I feel I’ve drained all my reserves after a week.

“I didn’t really recover from the time trial. The day before, I was feeling bad. But since it was flat, it didn’t bother me. But I couldn’t increase the pace, to go up a level. That is not a good sign.”

If LeMond bounces back, he may gamble in the mountains. Searchinger said LeMond could make his move during Sunday’s stage, which culminates with the l’Alpe d’Huez, a 6,102-foot peak. One scenario has the challengers mounting an attack on the 6,765-foot Col du Croix de Fer, the climb before l’Alpe d’Huez.

Such a move is chancy because the cyclists attacking could crack, and fall out of the top 20.

“Indurain is impressive, but he could have a bad day,” Laurent Fignon, who is 10th, told reporters. “Having said that, I know it’s true that when you are in great form, you don’t have bad days.

“Anyway, we have to try something and we will try something.”

Indurain, who easily won the Tour of Italy last month and is trying to become the first cyclist since 1987 to win the two major tours in one season, is being toasted by his compatriots.

The Spanish press is calling Indurain the most complete cyclist of the 1990s, and his name is being compared favorably with five-time Tour winners Bernard Hinault and Eddy Merckx, cycling legends.

“Indurain is one of the greats of all time,” Hinault said. “You can’t say that it is over this early. But Indurain is magnificent.”

Times staff writer Randy Harvey in Barcelona contributed to this report.