Cycling / Tour de France: Hampsten seizes LeMond baton: American climbs into third place as Indurain and Chiappucci fight private battle

THE Tour de France has settled into a duel between the solemn Miguel Indurain and the impish Claudio Chiappucci, but Andy Hampsten made yesterday's Alpine adventure his own.

Hampsten's triumph helped ease America's disappointment over Greg LeMond's departure after 103 of the 186 kilometres from Sestriere in Italy to the over- heated and over-crowded slopes of the Alpe d'Huez mountain.

LeMond quit his seventh Tour totally fatigued. He lost nearly 50 minutes on Saturday, describing it as 'a nightmare'. Yesterday he had fallen 15 kilometres behind the race when he quit the race he had won three times. 'I gave my maximum but I just did not have it,' LeMond said. 'I came to the race tired. I felt I was getting stronger, but in the mountains I did not have the strength.'

So his former lieutenant took over from the captain as Hampsten fought his way to victory with feet and fists. Seven kilometres from the ski-resort finish, Hampsten had climbed clear of his scattered rivals to enter the nightmare world of the frenzied fans.

'It is fantastic, but it is intimidating,' he said. 'I am concerned with staying calm so I don't blow up, and everyone else is screaming like they are at a boxing match.

'It's the most incredible sensation for a rider to have half a million people screaming for him to win. And they stay to cheer the last guy too, which is why the Tour is par excellence for me. I would rather have this victory than a world title.'

Hampsten struck plastic bottles of water from well-meaning hands, and lashed out again as the crowds closed in, making a sea of faces which barely opened sufficiently for him to pass. It was adulation gone berserk.

'That's intimidating, because if a spectator makes a mistake he could fell a rider. It does happen,' Hampsten said.

It happened to Scotland's Robert Millar and Gianni Bugno when they were with an earlier leading group on the Galibier mountain. A spectator sent both tumbling but they were quickly back in the saddle, passing a monument to Henri Desgranges, the man who could never have dreamed what he was starting with that first Tour in 1903.

The expected challenge from Bugno evaporated in the heat of the final mountain. He had fought back once, but the second time was the knock-out. He finished more than nine minutes after Hampsten, who left Indurain and Chiappucci to their own affairs as he joined a leading group of five on the Croix-de-Fer climb.

Indurain followed Chiappucci through most of the 21 hairpins of the Alpe d'Huez, where fans of all nations had camped along the 13 kilometres overnight.

Then he took a turn at the helm, but the Italian, a brilliant winner on Saturday's vicious mountain leg, could not resist outsprinting the Spaniard for fifth place.

Chiappucci's fire is certain to be doused by the indomitable Indurain, whose speed in the time trials is the key to triumph in Paris. There is 1min 42sec between them, and a time trial on Friday which only mishaps can stop Indurain winning. Hampsten may have risen to third overall, but now the mountains have finished he cannot pull back his eight-minute deficit.

'Indurain is imperturbable in any circumstances,' his team- mate Jean-Francois Bernard said, but one rider brought emotion from Indurain. Jesper Skibby, of Denmark, inadvertently stepped on his bare foot as he was changing shoes at a finish.

'I have never seen Miguel so angry,' one of his team helpers said. There is sure to be another burst of emotion in Paris on Sunday as he takes the final yellow jersey.

TOUR DE FRANCE Stage 14 (186.5km, Sestriere to Alpe d'Huez): 1 A Hampsten (Motorola, US) 5hr 41min 58sec; 2 F Vona (GB- MG, It) +1min 17sec; 3 E Boyer (Z, Fr) +2:08; 4 J Nevens (Lotto, Bel) +2:42; 5 C Chiappucci (Carrera, It) +3:15; 6 M Indurain (Banesto, Sp) same time; 7 J Unzaga (CLAS, Sp) +3:28; 8 R Virenque (RMO, Fr) +4:04; 9 G-J Theunisse (TVM, Neth) +4:13; 10 E Breukink (PDM, Neth) +4:42; 11 P Lino (RMO, Fr) +5:10; 12 F Chioccioli (GB-MG, It) +6:03; 13 J Montoya (Amaya, Sp) +6:03; 14 P Delgado (Banesto, Sp) +6:06; 15 F Mauleon (CLAS, Sp) +6:26. Selected: 19 R Millar (TVM, GB) +6:57; 26 G Bugno (Gatorade, It) +9:04; 41 S Roche (Carrera, Irl) +12:05; 45 S Kelly (Festina, Irl) +17:32; 67 S Yates (Motorola, GB) +28:32; 78 M Earley (PDM, Irl) +29:44. Retired: G LeMond (Z, US).

Overall: 1 Indurain 69hr 20min 04sec; 2 Chiappucci +1min 42sec; 3 Hampsten +8:01; 4 Lino +9:16; 5 Bugno +10:09; 6 Delgado +11:38; 7 Breukink +15:48; 8 G Perini (Carrera, It) +15:56; 9 Vona +16:41; 10 J Heppner (Telekom, Ger) +17:51; 11 Roche +18:03; 12 Boyer +18:11; 13 Theunisse +19:55; 14 G Rue (Castorama, Fr) +20:24; 15 Millar +21:08. Selected: 40 Kelly +1:07:58; 75 Yates +1:50:39; 76 Earley +1:51:17.

(Photograph and maps omitted)