Frenchman Richard Virenque, of the Quick Step team, won the 10th stage of the Tour de France held over 237km between Limoges and Saint Flour on Wednesday.
Virenque, the 34-year-old Frenchman who has revived his career with Quick Step following his role in the Festina doping affair in 1998, claimed his seventh stage overall on the race after another brave breakaway to claim the race’s polka dot jersey.
”It’s fabulous, especially on July 14,” said Virenque, referring to France’s national holiday, before breaking down in tears as he dedicated his victory to two former acquaintances who have passed away.
The main peloton, including Frenchman Thomas Voeckler in the yellow jersey and all the race favourites, arrived five minutes later.
Virenque came over the finish line of the race’s longest stage in just over six hours to take the race lead from fellow countryman Voeckler, of the La Boulangere team, who took the yellow jersey from Lance Armstrong after the fifth stage from Amiens to Chartres.
Virenque, who also won the longest stage of last year’s Tour at Morzine in the Alps, attacked the peloton with Belgian rider Axel Merckx at the 35km mark of the stage which rode over some tough terrain among the volcanoes of the Massif Central.
Together the pair managed to build over 10 minutes on the peloton, which appeared to be saving most of their energy for the two Pyrennean stages on Friday and Saturday.
However Lotto rider Merckx, the son of cycling legend Eddy, could not keep up with Virenque once the former bad boy of the sport decided to increase the tempo on the seventh of the day’s nine climbs, the first category Col du Pas de Peyrol (Puy Mary).
As Merckx sat back in his saddle, the Frenchman got out of his to dance on the pedals on the way up the 5,5km climb, which has an average gradient of eight percent.
Virenque’s lead on Merckx by the time he reached the top of the Col had stretched to 35 seconds, but as he took the descent the 40-strong peloton, at over eight minutes adrift, began to break up as German Andreas Kloden set the pace for his T-Mobile team leader Ullrich.
In the space of a few minutes, two riders crashed into the gutter. T-Mobile rider Matthias Kessler appeared to slide off to his right and into the gutter while riding at over 35km/h, the German smashing to the ground and colliding with a post at the roadside.
Kessler eventually got on his bike to bravely rejoin the race.
Moments later Credit Agricole rider Sebastian Hinault was forced to abandon the race after he crashed into a gutter on his left.
He appeared to be injured more seriously on the descent of the Col du Pas de Peyrol and was taken away minutes later in an ambulance.
Virenque was left on his own for the remainder of the stage as the peloton, being led by US Postal and the La Boulangere team of Voeckler, seemed content not to chase him down. — Sapa-AFP