Riis says Tour Route suits himBjarne Riis, the man from low-lying Denmark who likes to climb mountains, could not suppress a chuckle when the 1997 Tour de France itinerary was unveiled here Friday."I've got nothing to do with mapping out the Tour but I couldn't have asked for a better race," the 1996 winner said after Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc said next year's 3,870km race would wind its way over a record 27 mountain passes. "I like a challenge and this certainly is one," added the Dane who had gasped when Leblanc outlined the 10th stage, which contains eight mountain passes through the Pyrenees from Luchon to Andorra. "That's a big one," he said. Riis thought five-times winner Miguel Indurain would be back for an attempt at a record sixth win but did not believe the Spaniard would join Switzerland's Alex Zulle and Frenchman Laurent Jalabert with the Once team for a reported 10 million dollars. "Indurain is a great rider with a lot of pride. I feel sure he'll be back but I can't believe he'll be racing with Zulle and Jalabert," Riis said. Leblanc quelled mounting dissatisfaction from riders over this year's late finishes -- to fit in with television timetables -- by promising that no stage would finish after 5.30 pm. The 10th stage is the toughest but three days in the Alps, the 14th to 16th stages, could well decide the outcome. Those stages come immediately after a 55km time-trial at St Etienne. One last chance comes with a 62km time-trial at Disneyland just outside of Paris before the tradition finishing ride up the capital's Champs Elysees avenue. This from Sean Yates, in his column in Cycling Weekly:"I talked to Lance and he's had his first week of chemotherapy, but when I called he'd actually come back from a ride. He said he'd done 30km or so and was really tired, which shows the strength of the treatment. They want him to do everything normally when he's not having the treatment, so that's what he's doing, although his level of fitness is bound to drop. Jim [Ochowicz]'s going to see him soon and everybody's keeping his morale high, which is what matters right now." |