TOUR DE FRANCE : Indurain Holds Lead, Colombian Wins Stage

Miguel Indurain and the other Tour de France leaders played a wait-and-see game Monday in the first stage of the Pyrenees, jockeying for position while Colombian Oliviero Rincon took the day’s race, the 144-mile 15th stage from Perpignan to Andorra.

Monday’s leg had the most climbs of the Tour, nine, including the grueling 7,897-foot Port d’Envalira.

Indurain easily held onto the leader’s yellow jersey as the Tour began three stages in the Pyrenees. He has a lead of 3 minutes 23 seconds over Alvaro Mejia of Colombia, 4:31 over Zenon Jaskula of Poland and 5:44 over Tony Rominger of Switzerland.

The overall leaders waited in the pack until they had about six miles to go. They then accelerated and picked off most of the front-runners but couldn’t catch Rincon.

His victory was Colombia’s first in the Pyrenees and the first in the Tour for five years following a lean period since Luis Herrera and Fabio Parra performed their mountain exploits in the 1980s.

“I hope that this result and the success of Mejia will ensure that Colombian cycling never dies,” he said.

Rincon, who finished fourth in this year’s Tour of Spain, made his solo move at the start of the penultimate climb on the Col d’Ordino and sustained it to win on the final ascent to the finish at the Montee de Pal.

“At the start of the day I felt fine and luckily the break worked very well,” Rincon said.

Rincon won by almost two minutes. Rominger took second, followed, in order, by Riis, Jaskula, Indurain and Mejia.

Rominger spent most of the day near Indurain, waiting for his chance to attack. However Rominger lacked the resources he had in the Alps and only made one final burst to move to second as Indurain let up, content to stay close.

Indurain was helped by his Banesto teammates, who took turns leading the pack.

Gerard Rue of France did much of the work in the final half of the race for Indurain. When he faded, Pedro Delgado, who won the Tour in 1988, came to the aid of Indurain and paced him up the final climb before giving way.

Rue ended up more than eight minutes behind but did his job until three miles were left.

The day’s main casualty was German sprinter Olaf Ludwig, winner of the 13th stage in Montpellier, who abandoned on the fifth pass, the Col du Calvaire.

The top American overall is Andy Hampsten, who is sixth, 13:30 off the pace.

Today will be a rest day, then comes the 16th stage from Andorra to Saint Lary Soudain.