The Colombians were easy to spot when they arrived on the Tour in 1983. They were diminutive, dark-haired, black-eyed and conquered the Tour's mountains ahead of the heavy Europeans by smoothly spinning tiny gears.
Yesterday's stage winner here, Santiago Botero, is a Colombian in a different mould: brick outhouse rather than bird-like in build, with piercing blue eyes. He can climb mountains but he has the action of a bulldozer.
Until the mid-1980s the Tour awarded a daily prize for "elegance". Botero would not be a contender. Yesterday, having broken away from six other riders, the man from Medellin looked as comfortable as a frog in a matchbox. He was bent double, his chin virtually touching the handlebars, his head at an impossible angle as his blue eyes stared up the slope and his elbows splayed.
It was not pretty but, as in 2000 when he took the great Alpine stage to Briancon, it worked. Yesterday he became only the second Colombian after "Lucho" Herrera - one of the small and perfectly formed variety - to win two stages in one Tour, adding to his victory in the time-trial stage at Lorient. If that was a surprise, so too was his disastrous performance on Mont Ventoux on Sunday. That off-day had dropped him to 18th overall; yesterday he clawed back almost seven minutes on the leader Lance Armstrong and went back up to seventh.
The breakaway included Axel Merckx, who is to his father Eddy, "the cannibal", what Jordi Cruyff is to Johan. Merckx junior was the first to attack as the septet began the climb out of the valley but he was quickly gobbled up by Botero and could finish only third.
Also present was the new French hope Sandy Casar, who finished second in the Paris-Nice race in March. The French television commentators made much of the little rider from the FDJeux.com team but Botero was not there to praise Casar and duly buried him.
The expected match between Laurent Jalabert and Richard Virenque for the King of the Mountains jersey was eclipsed by Botero and company, who left only crumbs on offer at the top of the day's six small climbs. Today's three super-category ascents, including the highest point in the Tour, should settle the issue.
It will also provide the sternest test of the three weeks for Armstrong's US Postal Service team. Yesterday they faded on the final climb, where the Once team of Joseba Beloki again tried to put the Texan under pressure, setting the pace as they had on the Ventoux. A mile from the finish Beloki attacked: this time he surprised Armstrong by launching himself from a few yards behind and the Texan took a nanosecond longer to catch up than on Sunday, with all the insouciance of a horse swatting a gnat.
The last time the Tour visited this ski resort was during the 1998 "Tour de Farce", when the now disgraced Italian climber Marco Pantani won the race after an epic escape over the Col du Galibier.
At the stage start yesterday there was another reminder of that disastrous event with the appearance of Willy Voet, soigneur at the centre of that year's drug scandals. He is persona non grata in cycling but leapt the barriers for a TV interview.
Voet is now out of a job, Pantani is a shadow of his former self and the Olympic champion Jan Ullrich's long-term future is also unclear after he was banned yesterday for six months by the German Cycling Federation after his positive test for amphetamines last month.
Guardian Service
Stage 15:
How they finished
226.5kms from Vaison-la-Romaine to Les Deux-Alpes: 1. Santiago Botero (Colombia) Kelme five hours 55 minutes 16 seconds; 2. Mario Aerts (Belgium) Lotto-Adecco one minute 51 seconds behind; 3. Axel Merckx (Belgium) Domo Farm Frites 2:30; 4. Emmanuel Magnien (France) Bonjour 4:22; 5. Sandy Casar (France) F D Jeux.com 4:28; 6. Jose-Vicente Garcia-Acosta (Spain) Ibanesto.com 5:15.
Overall standings: 1. Lance Armstrong (US) US Postal 62 hours 53 minutes and 36 seconds 2. Joseba Beloki (Spain) ONCE 4 minutes and 21 seconds behind 3. Raimondas Rumsas (Lithuania) Lampre 6:39 4. Igor Gonzalez Galdeano (Spain) ONCE 8:50 5. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) Ibanesto.com 10:54 6. Jose Azevedo (Portugal) ONCE 11:11.
Points: 1. Robbie McEwen (Australia) Lotto-Adecco 229 points 2. Erik Zabel (Germany) Deutsche Telekom 229 3. Stuart O'Grady (Australia) Credit Agricole 170 4. Baden Cooke (Australia) FDJeux.com 162 5. Jan Svorada (Czech Republic) Lampre-Daikin 129 6. Lance Armstrong (US) U.S. Postal 89.
King of the Mountains: 1. Laurent Jalabert (France) CSC-Tiscali 173 points 2. Lance Armstrong (US) US Postal 120 3. Santiago Botero (Colombia) Kelme 108 4. Richard Virenque (France) Domo Farm Frites 107 5. Axel Merckx (Belgium) Domo Farm Frites 107 6. Joseba Beloki (Spain) ONCE 88.
Team standings: 1. ONCE 140 hours 03 minutes 18 seconds 2. Ibanesto.com seven minutes 02 seconds behind 3. U.S. Postal 8:41 4. Cofidis 11:23 5. Rabobank 22:35.
