CYCLING/Tour De France: The crowd on Heuduckstrasse would doubtless have preferred to see the green-clad figure of Erik Zabel leading the jostling pack into town to win the German stage finish, but instead they witnessed an event which had not been seen in the race for 21 years.
First over the line was the rainbow jersey of the world cycling champion, currently worn by the Spaniard Oscar Freire.
The rainbow-striped jersey worn by the world champion is seen in cycling circles like a woman in a fishing boat: a harbinger of bad luck.
Freire looks to have vanquished the curse for the moment. He is a genial young man from the northern industrial town of Torrelavega, where he hones his speed by racing against his brother's moped, and this is his second year in the rainbow jersey - in 1999 he won it at Verona, in 2001 in Lisbon, both times in mass sprints.
Two rainbow jerseys is a rare achievement, but so too is the fact that he has overcome a trapped sciatic nerve which has left him incapacitated for long spells, has led him on a trek around Europe's back specialists, and still calls for extreme measures: lengthy stretching sessions, no more than 15 minutes sitting down to eat, sleeping with a cushion between his knees on a special bed, and cutting holes in the toes of his cycling shoes.
Freire's country produces mainly climbers: until yesterday no Spaniard had won a bunch sprint in the Tour since 1978. His finish to the 181-km stage was worthy of the greats: a searing burst of pure speed in the final 100m took him fizzing round the Australian Robbie McEwen as he drifted towards the barriers on his right. McEwen and Zabel were left trailing in his wake.
On the subject of curses, the hex has settled on Deutsche Telekom, whose trouble-hit leader Jan Ullrich was depicted on posters on every wall in the town proclaiming that this is "a land in Tour fever".
The only fever Ullrich is arousing is in the German popular press: tabloid Bild splashed with Ullrich's flight to Florida with his girlfriend Gaby "to rekindle their love after his drug shame".
Despite a massive popular support it was a second disastrous day for the 'pink train', as the French call Telekom when they mass at the front of the peloton to pace Zabel for the sprint.
If Telekom are a train, Railtrack is controlling the signals. They built up to the sprint perfectly but two of their domestiques, Danilo Hondo and the Italian Gian-Matteo Fagnini, seemed to get in each other's way in the final 200m, putting Zabel off his stride.
Fagnini adroitly, if illegally, stuffed his elbow in McEwen's ribs as the Australian came past him, but that merely caused the Brisbane man to stall, enabling Freire to burst through.
The fact that the Swiss-Italian Rubens Bertogliati still leads the race sums up the fact that no single team has been able to get a grip: on Sunday Laurent Jalabert's CSC-Tiscali squad tried to win the yellow jersey but failed dismally, and yesterday it was the turn of Telekom to fall on their faces.
This ties in with a slight but significant change: teams no longer seem able to lead the string for kilometre after kilometre, powering over hill after hill, as they seemed to do in the mid-90s, when the banned bloodbooster erythropoietin was widely used. Signs of weakness and surprise results may be a welcome return to the past.
STAGE 2: 1. Oscar Freire (Spain) Mapei Four hours 19 minutes 51 seconds 2. Robbie McEwen (Australia) Lotto-Adecco 3. Erik Zabel (Germany) Deutsche Telekom 4. Baden Cooke (Australia) FDJeux.com 5. Jaan Kirsipuu (Estonia) AG2r Prevoyance 6. Andrej Hauptmann (Slovenia) Tacconi Sports 7. Pedro Horillo (Spain) Mapei 8. Fred Rodriguez (U.S) Domo Farm Frites 9. Gian-Matteo Fagnini (Italy) Deutsche Telekom 10. Stuart O'Grady (Australia) Credit Agricole.
Overall standings: 1. Rubens Bertogliati (Switzerland) Lampre Daikin Nine hours 18 minutes and 12 seconds 2. Erik Zabel (Germany) Telekom 2 seconds behind 3. Laurent Jalabert (France) CSC-Tiscali 3 seconds 4. Lance Armstrong (U.S.) U.S. Postal same time 5. Raimondas Rumsas (Lithuania) Lampre Daikin 6 6. Santiago Botero (Colombia) Kelme 7 7. David Millar (Britain) Cofidis 8 8. Laurent Brochard (France) Jean Delatour 9 same time.
