Second Edition News for July 25, 1997

Reports from Australian Press

This story appeared on Friday, July 25, 1997 under the headline "Bolt from the blue for mum and the kid" and was written by Paul Kent.

Neil Stephens was never meant to win a stage of the Tour de France. Or become only the second Australian, after Phil Anderson in 1981 and 1991, to do so.

Three days ago, Stephens was in the pack watching three Festina teammates slip away in front. Stephens's job then, as a domestique, was to help his teammates grab as great a lead as possible by slowing down the pack.

That's the role of the domestique - the ultimate team men. Just as every team has a leader, every team has its domestiques.

They are the fellows who, when the team leader punctures a tyre, offer theirs. If the team leader needs a drink, a domestique drops back through the pack until he reaches the support van, fills his jersey with bottles and sprints back.

His job is to set up the race for the team leader to win. If a rival breaks away from his leader the domestique chases him down, breaks his will. He brings his team leader back into the race.

Neil Stephens, 33, and living in Spain, was regarded as one of the best domestiques, an unsung hero. And just two days ago he was doing his job perfectly.

As his teammates tried to break away, Stephens sat at the front of the pack trying to block his rivals from pursuing. Until he was punched.

It seems a few frustrated riders could find no way around him, so one rider took it upon himself to force a way past. Punches were thrown. Stephens shrugged - he had done his job.

Yet none of this explains what happened yesterday, when Stephens won the 17th stage of the tour. Having attacked tour leader Jan Ullrich through the final stages of the mountains, without success, it was clear that team leader Richard Virenque would not be able to catch Ullrich over the final stages heading into Paris.

With that in mind, the Festina team might have decided to change their tactics to grab a single shot at glory with a stage win. Or Stephens might have simply been sticking with the breakaway group, helping Virenque, and found himself still in the race with the finishing line in sight.

Ullrich still leads the second-placed Virenque by 6min 22s, while Stephens is 55th overall, 2:14.31 behind.

"It's the biggest victory of my life," he said afterwards. "Obviously, it's the biggest race in the world. I've always thought I was capable of winning a stage in one of the major tours - the Tour de France, the Tour of Spain or the Tour of Italy - and obviously to win in the biggest of all of them is a big thrill."

He crossed the line three seconds in front, gesturing as if he were cradling a baby in his arms. Wire reports suggested it was a statement that stemmed from Brazil, where soccer players have been known to gesture this way to indicate they were "bringing the baby home".

But Stephens had the gesture in mind for other reasons.

"I didn't have much time to think about it so it was the first thing that came to my head," he said. "The birth of my first daughter was 4 months ago now, and I've been trying to win a stage in a race, to try and dedicate the victory to my wife and my daughter. What better place to do it than the Tour de France?"

What better place, to honour Amaia Stephens and little Maialen, than where he was never supposed to win?

Stephens did it the hard way. He teamed with Peugot in 1985, year by year working his way onto stronger teams. It paid off in 1992 when the rich French team ONCE picked him up, where he set up races for Laurent Jalabert.

When he moved to Festina this year, his respect was wide-spread.

Even yesterday, three kilometres from the finish, American Bobby Ulich saw Stephens ahead and instinct said to take him on.

But Ulich thought about the type of man Stephens is and the role he plays. He sat back in the saddle. The Australian - National Daily

Australian cyclist Neil Stephens used the bitter experience of two previous near misses to help him achieve the greatest moment of his sporting career when he won the 17th stage of the Tour de France here yesterday.

A "domestique" rider on the Spanish Festina team, Stephens usually does the unsung hard work for his team leader.

But today he siezed a rare opportunity to break away from the pack with three kilometres left in the 218.5-km stage from the Swiss city of Fribourg and became the first Australian to win a Tour stage since Phil Anderson in 1991.

"It's great, it sunk in 10 minutes after the race," Stephens said from his team hotel.

"I'd got so close to a stage win a couple of times before and that helped. I was so cool and calm in the approach into town because I was thinking in that position something always goes wrong for me."

This time, however, nothing went wrong for the 33-year-old from the ACT as he led the first attack 5km from the finish and then split the leading group 2km later to hold out Oscar Camenzind of Switzerland and Russian Vyacheslav Ekimov by three seconds.

Jan Ullrich of Germany, who came home with the peloton nearly four minutes behind Stephens, retained the overall leader's yellow jersey he has held for nine days, with only four days left in the Tour.

In 1994, Stephens was pipped to a stage win by Denmark's Rolf Sorensen and was in contention for a victory last year with only a few kilometres to go but disaster struck when a tyre rolled off the wheel.

The Spanish-based rider made a cradle with his arms as he crossed the finish line and later said the gesture was for his wife Amaia who gave birth to their daughter Maialene in March.

"I haven't lost my perspective. After the finish, the French were asking me that this surely was the best thing to have happened in my life," he said.

"I told them no, my marriage and the birth of my baby were the most important things in my life, but this is the best day of my sporting career without a doubt.

"I've been chasing a win all year and I've finally got one in the biggest race in the world.

"It's my sixth Tour and I'd been waiting for this victory for five years and finally I got it in the most beautiful race in the world.

"I don't get many chances to go for a stage win ... The last kilometre was very long.

"But when there's a chance for me, I have to take it like today. It was the biggest win of my life.

"Over the last couple of days, I've been feeling really fatigued and the funny thing was I said to my teammates this morning I was feeling pretty tired.

"The only reason I went to the front in the first place was my teammates were doing a lot of work and I thought I'd better get up there.

"A few riders attacked and then I counter-attacked and I couldn't believe it. Once I got into the break, I was happy to be with it."

Defending champion Bjarne Riis, who lost a lot of ground in Tuesday's last Alpine stage from Morzine, started the stage after casting doubts over his fitness.

After dropping from fourth to seventh overall, Riis said that he had been suffering with stomach trouble brought on by medicine which he took for wrist pains he has had for some years.

"If I don't feel better tomorrow I can't do it any more," Riis said, adding that he would not have made it over the last of the day's three climbs if fellow Dane Jesper Skibby of rival team TVM had not given him a helping push.

Riis said he thought his Telekom team mates should have dropped back to help him.