Cycling / Tour de France: Abdoujaparov hangs on for his second stage win

WITH most of his fiercest Tour de France rivals back home, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov was ready for Bordeaux after a drubbing through the mountains, but nearly threw away the chance of a second victory, writes Robin Nicholl from Bordeaux.

He had the American Frankie Andreu and the Dane Rolf Sorensen beaten for speed, but made the error of hurling his arms aloft too soon in the sprint. For anyone else that would have been disastrous, but the pigeon-fancier from Uzbekistan was sharp enough to grab the handlebars. His momentum was enough but Andreu's second place was a photo-finish.

'I did not see that the finish line was further on,' Abdoujaparov said. In 1991 he did not see an outsized can advertising Coke until it took the fizz out of his sprint on the Champs Elysees and broke his collarbone.

But even that agony was eased by his first green jersey as the most consistent finisher. He has sewn up that honour again, and could celebrate with a third victory in the final leg into Paris tomorrow.

The flatlands of the Landes do not inspire anything or anyone, and the first intermediate sprint of the day was on a steeper gradient than the one climb that was worth points to the mountain men on the 200-kilometre stage from Orthez.

Landaise stilt-dancers produced a livelier pace with their road-side dancing, but the Tour leader Miguel Indurain will have everyone dancing in home-town Pamplona on Sunday night when his inevitable hat-trick of Tour wins is complete.

His lead of 4min 28sec over the Colombian Alvaro Mejia should rise after today's 48km against-the-clock to Montlhery, but there was little need for speed yesterday.

When the race stirred, 20 riders built a tempo that took them to a lead of 1min 40sec in 17km, and by the finish they were close to five minutes clear as the group contained no one Indurain considered worth hunting.

Two kilometres from the finish Steve Bauer, who has known some yellow-jersey days in the Tour, raced away but had the Frenchman Francois Simon for company. Suddenly, inside the last kilometre, the Canadian eased as if waiting for Simon, a faster finisher, to make a move, and they were swept up by the chasers.

TOUR DE FRANCE 18th stage (200.5km, Orthez to Bordeaux): 1 D Abdoujaparov (Uzb, Lampre) 5hr 09min 04sec; 2 F Andreu (US, Motorola); 3 R Sorensen (Den, Carrera); 4 F Maassen (Neth, WordPerfect); 5 D-O Lauritzen (Nor, TVM); 6 S Colage (It, MOB); 7 F Simon (Fr, Castorama); 8 R Aldag (Ger, Telekom); 9 J Durand (Fr, Castorama); 10 B Holm (Den, Telekom); 11 H Frison (Bel, Lotto); 13 V Ekimov (Rus, Novemail); 14 D Cassani (It, Ariostea); 15 C Henn (Ger, Telekom) all same time. Selected: 29 C Chiappucci (It, Carrera) +4min 52sec; 42 S Roche (Irl, Carrera); 44 R Millar (GB, TVM); 56 M Indurain (Sp, Banesto); 65 S Yates (GB, Motorola); 87 T Rominger (Swit, Clas) all s/t.

Overall: 1 Indurain 89hr 32min 5sec; 2 A Mejia (Col, Motorola) +4min 28sec; 3 Z Jaskula (Pol, GB-MG) +4:42; 4 Rominger +5:41; 5 B Riis (Den, Ariostea) +12:08; 6 Chiappucci +14:19; 6 A Hampsten (US, Motorola) +14:35; 8 J Bruyneel (Bel, Once) +16:30; 9 P Delgado (Sp, Banesto) +19:21; 10 V Poulnikov (Ukr, Carrera) +20:40; 11 A Martin (Sp, Amaya) +24:19; 12 J-P Dojwa (Fr, Festina) +25:27; 13 G Faresin (It, MOB) +25:44; 14 R Conti (It, Ariostea) +26:16; 15 O Rincon (Col, Amaya) +26:19. Selected: 16 Roche +16:37; 22 Millar +36:18; 91 Yates +2hr 09min 09sec.

King of the Mountains: 1 Rominger 439pts; 2 Chiappucci 295; 3 Rincon 286. Points: 1 Abdoujaparov 263; 2 J Museeuw (Bel, GB-MG) 132; 3 M Sciandri (It, Motorola) 131.

(Maps omitted)