Wateringen Criterium (Netherlands) 27 July 95

Won by Servais Knaven in a sprint from Lance Armstrong and Eddy Bouwmans,
Jeroen Blijlevens led in the bunch sprint at 10 seconds.

____________

VILLAFRANCA DE ORDIZIA (Spain -- 25 July 95)

  1. Neil Stephens (Aus, ONCE) 180km in 4.25.37

  2. Della Santa (Ita, Mapei)                +2 secs

  3. Ullrich (Ger, Telekom)                 +27
  4. Vandenbroucke (Bel, Mapei)
  5. Furlan (Ita, Gewiss)             same time

  6. Garcia Camacho (Sp, Kelme)           +2.17
  7. Audhem (Ger, Telekom)
  8. Blanco (Sp, Banesto)
  9. Casas (Sp, Artiach)
 10. Elissaide (Sp, Euskadi)          same time

____________

Criterium of Camors (Morbihan, France -- 26 July 95)

  1. Laurent Jalabert 90km in 2.08.00
  2. Rue
  3. Robin same time

  4. Martin                   +35 secs
  5. Tchmil
  6. Bresset (amateur)
  7. Brochard
  8. N. Jalabert
  9. Trehin (amateur)
 10. Hinault (amateur)

That number 10's a familiar name. Any relation? --Roger

____________

Record abandons in 1995 Tour

The number of riders who abandoned or were eliminated in the Tour de France
in 1995 is the highest percentage in a decade:

1986	210 starters	78 abandons	(37.14%)
1987	207			72				(34.78)
1988	198			47				(23.73)
1989	198			60				(30.30)
1990	198			42				(21.21)
1991	198			40				(20.20)
1992	198			68				(34.34)
1993	180			44				(24.44)
1994	189			72				(38.09)
1995	189			74				(39.15)	

____________

Prize-Winnings in 1995 Tour (in French francs)

  1. ONCE	    	2,799,850
  2. Banesto 		2,674,100
  3. Gewiss		  1,477,500
  4. Festina   		600,900
  5. Carrera	   	583,000
  6. Novell		    514,200
  7. Mapei		     478,850
  8. Telekom-ZG	 383,650
  9. Castorama	  294,100
 10. Kelme	     	291,900
 11. Motorola		  270,500
 12. TVM		       234,600
 13. MG		       	231,600
 14. Polti	    		222,000
 15. Mercatone	  198,450
 16. Lampre	    	187,600
 17. Brescialat 	111,650
 18. Chazal	     	90,900
 19. Gan		       	52,200
 20. Lotto	      	41,100
 21. Aki		       	36,900
	

Lanterne Rouge


Bruno Cornillet: Lanterne Rouge but unashamed
Interview by Jean Louis le Touzet in Liberation, 22 July 1995
Reprinted without permission


The little fellow with the bandy legs and skinny body is last in the Tour.
Yesterday morning the Chazal rider was slow getting up. His eyelids droop
and his appearance is crumpled. Bruno Cornillet is a little tired of being
weary, which drags him down like a ball and chain, the aftermath of a boil
which left him flat five days before the start of the Tour. Cornillet, a
Breton rider of few words, finished his tenth Tour de France by riding with
masochistic cheefulness:

     "I am proud of my profession. People don't always give up on what
matters, and that is to finish the Tour. Me, I have abandoned four times
through injury. I know what I know."

He suppresses his frustration with a faint smile:

    "On this Tour I have waited for a long time for my form to return. But
my fitness has been feeble. In the Alps, I counted the kilometres on the
climbs, col after col. I saw only the crowds who lined the roads, without
being able to distinguish their faces. I even heard 'Chonchon', my surname,
and 'Cameleon', the name of my dog. In the "bus" (the bunch of laggards who
struggle to finish inside the time limit) those who drive it are those who
still have some strength. Me, I didn't even have enought power to take a
turn at the front. I was suffering all the time, and asked myself if I was
doing this all on my own just to look at the crowds."

Then the days passed, leaving Cornillet to these questions for the humble
rider, an inch away from abandoning in death throes prolonged by the heat.
Then he made the most of an improvement he thought he saw in his weakened
body:

     "One moment, I told myself, Good God, you are not a machine... Then I
told myself that I had done my punishment. And immediately, I was better. I
think that what saved me was my instinct for survival. I had kept my taste
for the struggle. I rebelled against myslef: 'No, you haven't changed, you
are still the same, you always like to attack'. It's that, basically, which
saved me."

The team-mate of Jean-Francois Bernard shows his feelings without
advertising them:

     "I think of Fabio Casartelli everyday. In the evening, above all, when
I go to sleep, in the morning when I climb on my bike. Like all the riders,
I feel very concerned by his death. I was greatly pained by it. The stage
between Tarbes and Pau, when the race was neutralised, was a great moment
in my life. I felt there was enormous passion to be found there, in the
peleton."

Bruno Cornillet is also frank:

    "That stage was very hard. I think that if the peloton had rolled as it
usually does, I would not have finished inside the time limit".

Bruno Cornillet is already elsewhere, fingering in his pockets for his
pilot's diploma, building in the sky for the future.

     "I don't know if I am going to continue cycling. Today, to be at this
level, it is necessary by November to have more kilometres in your legs
than before. It is necessary to be riding well by December, and training
even harder. And then all of that doesn't leave me enough time for my test
on the flight simulator. I'm going to have to think about it a little
more."

He doesn't know if he can escape this last place, which became his again
yesterday afternoon, following the abandonment of the Colombian Hector
Castano with whom he had disputed the lanterne rouge for a couple of days.
Last, at the bottom, he finds it "rather good".

    "At least one isn't anonymous. If you aren't in the top twenty on GC,
you don't have to care about your placing. When you're last, at least they
talk about you a little. It's a picture which pleases me, since all there
are a number who haven't finished the Tour. It's better than going home
injured."

For the last three days, he's been saving his strength. He calls this the
"respite". He says that he feels better. He nurtures a single wish: "to
finish the Tour". Then, in the warm air of the Limousin countryside, he
finds some hope:

    "I'm going well. One moment, I had lost confidence in myself. The
opportunities are rare to put oneself to the fore. For we assistants, who
are not sprinters and who don't perform strongly in the time-trial, it is
very hard to be at the front.

Yesterday, when the peloton was strung out in the Perigord, he saw his toil
etched in the shadows of the chestnut trees:

    "When they set off so fast, I'm frightened. I was with Hector Castano.
He told me he had had tendonitis for five days, and that he hoped they
wouldn't go so fast. I said to him, 'It will surprise me if this lasts more
than two stages". Then I saw him abandon.

Yesterday, Cornillet crossed the line with the peloton, 7'54 behind Lance
Armstrong. Proud as a wild rooster.

    "Again it was a very tough stage. I was pleased still to be going at
the end. I'm telling myself now that I've been through the worst... I am in
last place and happy to be feeling good again. Today, in the time trial,
there will still be people who want my autograph before the start. People
don't imagine that even the last rider needs his concentration.