Two Disqualified as Race Is Saddled With Controversy

Mario Traversoni was awarded the victory Friday after another stage of the Tour de France ended in a controversial sprint and the disqualification of the top two riders.

It was the third time in 19 stages that an apparent winner had the victory taken from him.

Jan Ullrich of Germany stayed in the overall lead. He had a 6-minute 22-second lead over Richard Virenque. Third was Marco Pantani of Italy.

There is another time trial today at Disneyland Paris, the day before the Tour ends on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

In Friday’s stage from Montebeliard to Dijon, Bart Voskamp of the Netherlands and Jan Heppner of Germany interfered with each other in the final sprint.

Voskamp went off line to force Heppner to the side. Then, just before the finish, Heppner moved into Voskamp and nearly fell but stayed upright only by leaning on Voskamp.

Traversoni, who won the sprint for third place, was declared the winner, while Voskamp and Heppner were dropped to 10th and 11th places, respectively.

Germany’s Erik Zabel lost a stage victory two weeks ago and Ukraine’s Sergei Outschakov was moved from third to first after an interference call in the 11th stage.