CYCLING: Amid the continual speculation about what chemical and medical assistance the Tour men need to complete the world's greatest bike race, it is easy to forget that they rely on other things for moral support, writes William Fotheringham at La Plagne
Yesterday's winner, the Dutchman Michael Boogerd, offered a timely reminder of the power that superstitions and lucky charms have always played in a sport in which, more than most others, sheer bad luck also plays a defining role.
As Boogerd crossed the finish line after achieving a minor miracle in holding off Lance Armstrong in the final kilometres, he kissed a small medallion hanging on a chain around his neck. It contains his first tooth and that of his girlfriend, and the four-leaf clover that he was carrying when he won his first stage of the Tour at Aix-les-Bains in 1996. It may smack of voodoo, but it works for him.
It is also in the best Tour tradition. Much of the magic worked by the soigneurs in days of yore was old wives' lore: bees' and toads' venom, and eggs in a glass of port.
Yesterday's win was the product of sweat as well as superstition, however. Boogerd was in the early action over the highest point in this year's Tour, the great scree slopes leading to the 8,000ft summit of the Col du Galibier, which only needed bleached bones by the roadside to complete the picture of desolation.
He held on up the more pastoral slopes of the Col de la Madeleine, amid a clinking of cowbells and the smell of wild garlic, but his margin at the foot of the climb to La Plagne was only seven minutes. When Armstrong decided to add a little to his overall lead by attacking Joseba Beloki and Raimondas Rumsas, who lie second and third, it seemed as if the Texan might overtake him. Armstrong closed rapidly, but the Dutchman hung on.
The Alps no longer belong to the Dutch as they used to. L'Alpe d'Huez - nicknamed "the mountain of the Dutch" - was traditionally where they pitched camp, but it is 13 years since a Dutchman won the stage there or anywhere to compare with it.
Overall they have only had Boogerd's fifth place overall in 1998 to boast about in the last 10 Tours, and he says that that result damned him to several years fruitlessly seeking a place in the top three. This year his Rabobank team have turned to an American, Levi Leipheimer, to be their leader, but he lies a disappointing ninth.
Yesterday all but decided the battle for the red-and-white polka dot jersey awarded to the best mountain climber, as Richard Virenque's legs failed to rise to the challenge. He was left behind on all three mountains and is now too far behind Laurent Jalabert to stand much of a chance of equalling the record of six King of the Mountains titles.
Considering his relatively limited ability as a climber, "Jaja" played a tactical blinder, as he has since the race entered the Pyrenees. He escaped early on the Galibier with Boogerd, was retrieved after taking third place at the summit, then evaded the peloton again close to the foot of the descent from the "roof of the Tour" to take a place in the group chasing the Dutchman.
That ensured him second place at the top of the Madeleine, and his 131-point lead over Virenque should take him to Paris. Tour followers with an eye for superstition have already noted that he is wearing number 51, the dossard which is held to bring good fortune. It has helped him to what should be a triumphal swansong. Armstrong, on the other hand, now has five minutes on Beloki, and has no apparent need of good luck charms.
Guardian Service
