Dauphine Libere - France

June 4-11 1995


Prologue - 6.7 kms

Boardman and directeur sportif Roger Legeay were not feeling too confident just before the afternoon start of the Prologue after Boardman suffered a minor muscle tear while warming up in the morning. At the halfway point Indurain was three seconds up on Boardman, but Boardman made up 13 seconds on the descent section. "My injury handicapped me in the climb and I could have done better without this spot of bother," Boardman said in almost perfect French [a great compliment from L'Equipe which liberally scatters "sics" in the "French" of poor benighted foreign bike riders -- they used to especially delight in doing this with Greg Lemond].

"But I can't concentrate solely on this objective. Having the leader's jersey is fine but what I want is a good place in the final classification -- seeing where I am by comparison with the best climbers." L'Equipe opines that Indurain took it a little easy because of slippery conditions and indeed for this reason chose at the last moment to ride his normal road bike rather than the new time trial bike he first used in the Midi Libre.

1. Chris Boardman (Britain) 08:20 2. Thierry Marie (France) + 02 secs. 3. Miguel Indurain (Sapin) 10 4. Armand De Las Cuevas (France) 17 5. Laurent Brochard (France) 26 6. Vicente Aparicio (Spain) s.t. 7. Juan Carlos Dominguez (Sapin) 28 8. Thierry Laurent (France) s.t. 9. Richard Virenque (France) 29 10. Luc Leblanc (France) 31 11. Seigneur 12. Robin both same time as Leblanc (+31) 13. Kasputis +32 14. Mejia same time 15. Peron +36 16. Jeker same time 17. Tchmil +38 18. Lino +41 19. Bouvard same time 20. Casartelli +43

Stage 1

231.7 kms

1. Andrei Tchmil (Ukraine) 05:17:14 2. Miguel Indurain (Spain) 3. Wiebren Veenstra (Netherlands) 4. Mauro Radaelli (Italy) 5. Michel Vermote (Belgium) 6. Jean-Paul Van Poppel (Netherlands) 7. Lars Michaelsen (Denmark) 8. Jean-Claude Colotti (France) 9. Sammie Moreels (Belgium) 10. Michel Van Haecke (Belgium) all same time G.C. (1)

1. Chris Boardman (Britain) 5:25:34 2. Thierry Marie (France) + 02 secs. 3. Indurain 4 4. Armand De Las Cuevas (France) 17 5. Laurent Brochard (France) 26 6. Vicente Aparicio (Spain) s.t. 7. Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spain) 28 8. Tchmil s.t. 9. Thierry Laurent (France) s.t. 10. Richard Virenque (France) 29

Stage 2

Before Wiebren Veenstra's sprint victory, Dominique Arnould (Le Groupement) had tried a lone break which lasted 70km. When he was picked up, two French neo pros, Sebatian Medan (Castorama) and Christophe Moreau (Festina), broke clear towards the end of the stage for 20km into the strong mistral, building up a lead of about 30 seconds. Only in the suburbs of the finish town, Guilherand, were they picked up by the peloton driven along by Boardman's Gan, Veenstra's Motorola and Radaelli's Brescialat.

Earlier in the day, Boardman, in yellow, had a difficult period in the ascent of the Lalouvesc after puncturing halfway up, which led him to drop off the back of the Indurain group. Paced by Pascal Lance, and then by Edddy Seigneur who dropped back to fill the hole, "the Briton showed impressive serenity and courage".

"The time trial [tomorrow]," said Boardman, "is my first true objective before the mountain stage. I feel reassured because my muscle injury isn't bothering me. As far as the time trial goes, I think I'm in better shape than last year. But with Miguel Indurain there you have to be very strong."

"It's very difficult to come to a judgement on Miguel's shape. In the Tour prologue I took 15 seconds out of him; 10 days later, in the Bergerac time trial, he took 5.30 out of me. Anything's possible."

173 kms

1. Wiebren Veenstra (Netherlands) 4:12:26 2. Mauro Radaelli (Italy) s.t. 3. Gabrielle Missaglia (Italy) + 01 sec. 4. Lars Michaelsen (Denmark) 5. Gilles Talmant (France) 6. Chris Boardman (Britain) 7. Jean-Claude Colotti (France) 8. Nico Mattan (Belgium) 9. Eric De Clercq (Belgium) 10. Laurent Brochard (France) all s.t. G.C. (2)

1. Boardman 9:38:01 2. Thierry Marie (France) + 01 sec. 3. Miguel Indurain (Spain) 04 4. Armand De Las Cuevas (France) 17 5. Brochard 26 6. Vicente Aparicio (Spain) s.t. 7. Juan Carlos Dominguez (Spain) 28 8. Andrei Tchmil (Ukraine) s.t. 9. Thierry Laurent (France) s.t. 10. Richard Virenque (France) 29

Stage 3

Through the Cotes-du-Rhone vineyards, the course was up and down and into a headwind for the first part. At the 16.9km mark, Indurain already had 34 secs on Boardman and 59 on Marie. Indurain used his new carbon-fibre time trial bike [he first used it in the Midi Libre], based on his hour-record track bike. With Campag Shamal wheels it weighs 8kg, the frame and fork alone weigh 2.1kg. After the finish, Indurain contacted the Pinarello factory by phone to ask them to make a spare as soon as possible as an emergency back-up for the Tour.

36.5 kms ITT

1. Miguel Indurain (Spain) 44:41 2. Christopher Boardman (Britain) + 1:08 3. Thierry Marie (France) 1.55 4. Armand De Las Cuevas (France) 2.13 5. Pascal Lance (France) 2.27 6. Vicente Aparicio (Spain) 2.28 7. Andrea Peron (Italy) 2.52 8. Thierry Laurent (France) 2.54 9. Arturas Kasputis (Lithuania) 3.24 10. Alvaro Mejia (Colombia) 3.29 G.C. (3)

1. Indurain 10:22:46 2. Boardman + 1:04 3. Marie 1.52 4. De Las Cuevas 2.26 5. Aparicio 2.50 6. Laurent 3.18 7. Pascal Lance (France) 3.23 8. Peron 3.24 9. Kasputis 3.52 10. Richard Virenque (France) 3.54

Stage 4

205 kms

1. Richard Virenque (France) 05:07:44 2. Alvaro Mejia (Colombia) 3. Miguel Indurain (Spain) s.t. 4. Jean-Cyril Robin (France) + 49 secs. 5. Miguel Arroyo (Mexico) 6. Jose Ramon Gonzales Arrieta (Spain) 7. Carmelo Miranda (Spain) 8. Argiro Zapata (Colombia) 9. Vicente Aparicio (Spain) s.t. 10. Andrea Peron (Italy 1:17 General Classification (4)

1. Indurain 15:30:30 2. Chris Boardman (Britain) + 2:21 3. Aparicio 3:39 4. Virenque 3:54 5. Mejia 3:57 6. Peron 4:41 7. Robin 5:21 8. Miranda 6:16 9. Thierry Laurent (France) 6:39 10. Arroyo 6:

Stage 5

198 kms 1. Gilles Talmant (France) 5:00:54 2. Jean-Cyril Robin (France) 3. Jose Ramon Gonzales Arrieta (Spain) s.t. 4. Fabian Jekker (Switzerland) + 06 secs. 5. Fabio Casartelli (Italy) 1:15 6. Marco Milesi (Italy) 7. Laurent Brochard (France) 8. Thierry Laurent (France) 9. Thomas Fleischer (Germany) 10. Christopher Boardman (Britain) all s.t. G.C. (5) 1. Indurain 20:32:39 2. Boardman + 2:21 3. Vicente Aparicio (Spain) 3:39 4. Richard Virenque (France) 3:54 5. Alvaro Mejia (Colombia) 3:57 6. Robin 4:06 7. Andrea Peron (Italy) 4:41 8. Carmelo Miranda (Spain) 6:16 9. Laurent 6:39 10. Miguel Arroyo (Mexico) 6:48

Stage 6

143 kms 1. Richard Virenque (France) 04:15:22 2. Jean-Cyril Robin (France) 3. Miguel Indurain (Spain) 4. Vicente Aparicio (Spain) 5. Chris Boardman (Britain) all s.t. 6. Carmelo Miranda (Spain) + 21 secs. 7. Miguel Arroyo (Mexico) 27 8. Fabian Jeker (Switzerland) 2:14 9. Thierry Laurent (France) 2:37 10. Jose Ramon Gonzales Arrieta (Spain) 3:03 General Classification (6) 1. Indurain 24:48:01 2. Boardman + 2:21 3. Aparicio 3:39 4. Virenque 3:54 5. Robin 4:06 6. Miranda 6:37 7. Arroyo 7:15 8. Alvaro Mejia (Colombia) 8:14 9. Andrea Peron (Italy) 9:16 10. Thierry Laurent (France) s.t.

Stage 7 - Final Stage

159 kms 1. Fabian Jeker (Switzerland) 04:03:31 2. Chris Boardman (Britain) 3. Richard Virenque (France) 4. Andrei Tchmil (Russia) 5. Miguel Indurain (Spain) 6. Vicente Aparicio (Spain) 7. Jean-Cyril Robin (France) all s.t. 8. Andrea Peron (Italy) + 06 secs. 9. Thierry Laurent (France) 10. Fausto Dotti (Italy) s.t. Final General Classification 1. Indurain 28:51:32 2. Boardman + 2:21 3. Aparicio 3:39 4. Virenque 3:54 5. Robin 4:06 6. Carmelo Miranda (Spain) 6:43 7. Miguel Arroyo (Mexico) 7:21 8. Alvaro Mejia (Colombia) 8:20 9. Peron 9:22 10. Laurent s.t.