Virenque Wins Uphill Battle

Allez Lance. Allez Virenque.

Go Lance. Go Virenque.

Mountains were everywhere Saturday.

Climb Lance. Climb Virenque.

The crowds were intensely involved, vocal and impassioned. Both for a foreigner aiming for history and a home-country man just aiming upward.

Hot-air balloons were overhead. Enthusiastic boys stood against metal barriers blowing whistles.

Faster Lance. Hurry Virenque.

It’s a holiday weekend, with a celebration for Bastille Day scheduled Monday. In Paris, officials are gathering extra security for fear of large demonstrations -- for and against almost everything.

Here in the Alps, the hillsides were crammed with fans of cycling, fans of France, fans of Lance Armstrong and most of all, fans of Richard Virenque. The roads were filled until traffic stopped and passengers abandoned the cars, got out and yelled for the cyclists.

Virenque, who has movie-star looks and a tabloid story of doping, denial and -- when he was caught red-handed -- tearful apology, thrilled the tens of thousands who had painted the roads and held signs cheering him on by winning the first true mountain stage of the 2003 Tour de France.

Almost on a whim, “I dared,” Virenque said afterward, the 33-year-old who was a key figure in the 1998 doping scandal that almost took the Tour down, broke away early and won the seventh stage, 142.9 miles from Lyon, home of gourmets, to Morzine, a mountain resort near Switzerland, in a time of 6 hours 6 minutes 3 seconds.

In one big ride, Virenque took over the yellow jersey as the leader of the Tour.

Armstrong, 31, of Austin, Texas, is still in second place overall, 2 minutes 37 seconds behind Virenque but safely ahead of the riders he fears most likely to overtake him when the Tour ends July 27 in Paris.

The four-time defending champion, who is trying to match Miguel Indurain’s record five titles, and his United States Postal Service teammates were content to let Virenque make his move. They are confident Virenque doesn’t have the ability for upcoming time trials that would make him a threat to deny Armstrong.

And they are quietly confident Armstrong is poised for a big push today in the eighth stage, which ends with the monumental, 21-hairpin turn climb to L’Alpe d’Huez.

Team USPS was pleased to see two potential threats -- Italy’s Gilberto Simoni and Colombia’s Santiago Botero -- lose more than six minutes each to Armstrong. Simoni, who won the taxing Giro d’Italia this spring, had been bragging he would make a mark in the mountains. Botero won the title as best mountain rider in the 2000 Tour. But both struggled over the five climbs in 85-degree heat.

“It was good,” Armstrong spokesman Jogi Muller said. “We put two challengers out of the reckoning.”

When a trainer for Virenque’s Festina team was caught with a car full of illegal doping drugs and equipment in 1998, Virenque was passionate in defending his innocence and indignant when his team was kicked out of the Tour. Two years later, at a court trial, Virenque sheepishly acknowledged he was guilty of using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. His defense was that everybody does it.

But Virenque, always a fierce climber, never lost the love of his fans and the noise from the celebration at the finish line seemed to clang off the stony mountain tops. He had served a seven-month ban from cycling and missed the 2001 Tour after the drug trial.

“He has disappointed us, yes,” said Thierry Phillipe, a Virenque fan who had spent six hours in holiday traffic to clamber up a hill and stake out a viewing position. “Virenque has let us down, but he is also a fierce competitor and he is making us proud today.”

Phillipe was about 20 miles from the finish line. It was clear to Phillipe that Virenque was taking the stage.

Already, with two weeks still to go, the climbs and the heat took a toll. Seven riders dropped out, including Alessandro Petacchi of Italy, who had won four of the previous six flat stages.

But still hanging in was Tyler Hamilton of Marblehead, Mass. Hamilton, who broke his collarbone in a mass crash during the Tour’s first stage last Sunday, made it through the first day of heavy climbing. He is in 20th place, 4:21 behind Virenque. Hamilton stuck with Armstrong’s group most of the day. Even Hamilton’s team doctors had predicted he would be unable to stand the pain of pushing forward up the mountains.

This centenary Tour seems to be shaping up as Armstrong against 2002 runner-up Joseba Beloki and 1997 winner Jan Ullrich. Beloki is sixth overall, 32 seconds behind Armstrong, and Ullrich is ninth, 38 seconds behind Armstrong.

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At a Glance

Highlights from Stage 7:

* Stage: Lyon to Morzine, 142.9 miles in the French Alps. It’s the longest stage of the Tour.

* Winner: Richard Virenque, France. The five-time King of the Mountains claimed the sixth stage victory of his career in 6 hours 6 minutes 3 seconds.

* How Others Fared: Four-time winner Lance Armstrong finished 15th. Jan Ullrich, the 1997 champion, was 21st. Tyler Hamilton of the United States rode with a fractured collarbone and placed 25th. Gilberto Simoni of Italy, a talented climber, was 77th.

* Out of the Race: Alessandro Petacchi, who won four of the first six stages, and Marco Velo of Italy; Jaan Kirsipuu of Estonia; Jesus Manzano and Luis Perez of Spain; Olaf Pollack and Michael Rich of Germany. 187 riders remain from the 198 who started.

* Next Stage: Sallanches to L’Alpe d’Huez, 135.78 miles up the Tour’s second Alpine climb -- featuring the ascent up the Col du Galibier, which peaks at 8,728 1/2 feet.

* On the Web: For live updates of each day’s Tour de France stage, complete standings, cyclist profiles and course information, go to: latimes.com/tour.

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Tour de France

OVERALL LEADERS

After seven stages. Eighth stage is from Sallanches to L’Alpe d’Huez, 135.78 miles

1. Richard Virenque 29 hours 10 minutes 39 seconds

2. Lance Armstrong 2 minutes 37 seconds behind

3. Rolf Aldag 2:48 behind

4. Jose Luis Rubiera 2:59 behind

5. Roberto Heras 3:03 behind

6. Joseba Beloki 3:09 behind

7. Jorg Jaksche 3:14 behind

8. Manuel Beltran 3:15 behind

9. Jan Ullrich 3:15 behind

10. Jose Azevedo 3:37 behind

STAGE LEADERS

Top finishers in seventh stage, a 142.9-mile leg from Lyon to Morzine:

1. Richard Virenque 6 hours 6 minutes 3 seconds

2. Rolf Aldag 2 minutes 29 seconds behind

3. Sylvain Chavanel 3:45 behind

4. Michael Rogers 4:03 behind

5. Stefano Garzelli 4:06 behind