Tour de France : LeMond Leaves Fignon 40 Seconds Back in Alps

ORCIERES-MERLETTE, France —  Greg LeMond kept saying he would be hard pressed to keep the lead once the Tour de France entered its mountain stages in the Pyrenees and Alps.

And after the stages through the Pyrenees last week, LeMond of Minneapolis lost the lead to Laurent Fignon of France.

But Sunday, saying he feels stronger than when he won the tour in 1986, LeMond regained the lead with an impressive performance in an individual time trial in the Alps.

High amid the picturesque mountains, LeMond took fifth place in the race against the clock to once again take the leader’s yellow jersey. Fignon winner in 1983 and 1984, fell into second place, 40 seconds behind LeMond.

“It’s nice to have the yellow jersey again but the most important is to take it as it goes,” LeMond said, knowing there is still a week to go before the cycling race ends in Paris.

“But I feel as fresh as I ever felt in the Tour de France, which is quite unusual,” he said. “In ‘86, I had a lot more mental stress than I do now.”

Since his victory, however, he has suffered various misfortunes. A hunting accident, an emergency appendectomy and leg problems made him miss the last two years of the Tour de France.

“I feel I am getting stronger and I haven’t had any bad days,” LeMond said. “I’d say I am feeling probably as good as I have been since then. I’m probably not climbing as well but I am making great improvement.

“I felt good. I probably could have pushed it harder the last hill. I have to say that hill time trials are not my specialty.”

Fignon, who held a seven-second margin going into the 15th stage, finished 10th Sunday, 47 seconds behind LeMond.

Andy Hampsten of Boulder, Colo. faltered in Sunday’s climb and finished in 1:13:30. He dropped to seventh overall, more than seven minutes behind LeMond.

Steven Rooks of the Netherlands won the stage in 1 hour 10 minutes 42 seconds over the 25-miles from Gap to Orcieres-Merlette. The last five miles were up hill.

Marino Lejaretta of Spain was second in 1:11:06 and defending champion Pedro Delgado of Spain was fourth in 1:11:31, gaining just a handful of seconds on LeMond, who was clocked in 1:11:39.

“I knew I was going to do a good race,” Le Mond said. “I was afraid of losing more than a minute to Delgado but I just lost eight seconds.”

Delgado is in fourth place overall, 2:48 back, with four more stages in the Alps to go after a rest day today. Then there is a relatively flat stage on Saturday with a closing time trial from Versailles to Paris Sunday.

Fignon and LeMond, the only American to win the race, have traded the lead since July 6. First LeMond held it for five days through last Tuesday. Then Fignon took over with a burst up a mountain in the second stage in the Pyrenees.

The lead stayed that way over the flat sections through southern France.

Sunday’s climb from 2,400 feet to 6,003 feet had two slopes rated first category in steepness and difficulty. The first lasted most of the first six miles of the stage.

LeMond won the last time trial to Rennes on July 6 that put him in the lead, but he wasn’t expecting to do so well here.

“I was afraid of pushing it to my limit, but I was afraid of exploding,” LeMond said. Exploding is a term racers use to describe the sensation when they run out of power.

LeMond feared the mountains since problems in the steep sections of the Tour of Italy a month ago. But he held up well in the Pyrenees last week and held up even better Sunday in the Alps.