CYCLING: The Italians have not been at their best in recent Tours, which may be a hangover from the spate of drug scandals and police investigations that have beset them in recent years.
No azzurro has finished in the top 10 of the Tour since 1999 and their only success story until yesterday was the presence of Ivan Basso in the white jersey of best young rider. So low are their hopes, in fact, that only three Italian newspapers have sent writers here, a far cry from the heyday of Marco Pantani. Yesterday, though, they had their first stage victory since July 2000 to write about when the bleach-blond Dario Frigo outsprinted the Belgian Mario Aerts and another Italian, Giuseppe Guerini. Even then it was cause for only limited celebration. Frigo was the strongest cyclist in the first half of last season, winning the Paris-Nice and Tour of Romandie stage events and leading for much of the Giro d'Italia.
Unfortunately he is now infamous as the biggest fish netted by the carabinieri during their "blitz" in last year's Giro. He was found with a flask labelled "Hemassist", a substance that increases the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity, and was promptly sacked by his team of the time, Fassa Bortolo.
As an illustration of the mentality of cyclists who dope, the episode was illuminating. The little climber from Saronno admitted he had bought the flask for £5,000 from a man advertising the product on the internet and who handed it to him at Milan's Linate airport. He had, he said, not used it and he had it with him only in case of emergencies. It was as well he had not opened it: the carabinieri found it to contain only salt water.
Frigo served a six-month ban for other products found in his luggage, growth hormone and testosterone, and is now back in the fold, riding for the lesser team Tacconi Sport, who gained entry to the Tour largely because of the haul of world ranking points he won before last year's trouble. Asked yesterday about his travails, he said, "I don't think of the past; I want to think of beautiful things and this win is a beautiful thing."
There was beauty aplenty to savour yesterday, from the great rock defile leading to the high pastures and vast crystal blue reservoir on the first mountain climb, the Cormet de Roselend, to a fine 12th-century monastery on the sinuous descent from the final mountain pass of the day, the Col de la Colombiere, little more than a Tarmacked goat-track.
Frigo suffers from the heat and coolish conditions helped him to an escape that lasted the whole of the stage, although it was Aerts who led over the day's four mountains, the Roselend, the Saisies, with its ski-lifts and serried chalets, the Aravis, with its view of Mont Blanc, and the Colombiere. Frigo's final sprint was finely calculated.
There are several smallish climbs in today's stage but this offered the final chance to shuffle the pack behind Armstrong; it was tightly packed yesterday morning, the five men from fourth to eighth in a span of 46 seconds. This is time which can be gained on a single mountain and the Colombian Santiago Botero took advantage, careering away from the Texan and his team-mates on the Colombiere like a sprinter who has seen the finish line.
His team-mate Jose Gutierrez waited for him close to the summit, paced him to a group pursuing Frigo and friends and by the finish he had risen from seventh to fourth overall - or 14 places since the Tour entered the Alps on Tuesday.
It all has to be seen in context. On top of the Colombiere an American fan brandished an inflatable shark seen at other times outside Armstrong's US Postal Service team bus. Botero's burst and Frigo's flurry had all the impact of pilot fish jostling for position around the big white carnivore.
Scotland's David Millar has pulled out of the Commonwealth Games, his team Cofidis confirmed last night.
Millar, who won stage 13 of the Tour de France last Saturday, was scheduled to compete in the road race on August 3rd but will instead travel to Germany to ride for the French team in the time-trial at the Karlsruher Versicherungs Grand Prix.
Guardian Services
Stage 17:
How they finished
142 km from Aime to Cluses: 1 D Frigo (Ita) Tacconi Sport 4.02.27 (35.14 km/h), 2 M Aerts (Bel) Lotto-Adecco, 3 G Guerini (Ita) Team Deutsche Telekom at 0.02, 4 DMoncoutié (Fra) Cofidis at 2.55, 5 T Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole at 2.58, 6 L Lefèvre (Fra) Jean Delatour, 7 U Osa (Spa) iBanesto.com, 8 M A.Serrano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski, 9 JJaksche (Ger) ONCE-Eroski, 10 C Sastre (Spa) CSC-Tiscali.
General Classification: 1 L Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 72hrs 50min 25secs (39.91 km/h), 2 J Beloki (Spa) ONCE-Eroski at 5mins 06secs, 3 R Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre Daikin 7.24, 4 S Botero (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca 10.59, 5 JAzevedo (Por) ONCE-Eroski at 12.08, 6 IGonzalez de Galdeano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski at 12.12, 7 F Mancebo (Spa) iBanesto.com at 12.28, 8 R Heras Hernandez (Spa) US Postal Service at 12.54, 9 LLeipheimer (USA) Rabobank at 13.58, 10 CSastre (Spa) CSC-Tiscali 14.49.
Points: 1. R McEwen (Aus/LOT) 229 pts 2. E Zabel (Ger/TEL) 229 3. S O'Grady (Aus/C.A) 180.
King of Mountains: 1. L Jalabert (Fra/CST) 262 pts 2. M Aerts (Bel/LOT) 178 3. S Botero (Col/KEL) 162.
Team overall: 1. ONCE 218 h 55:33. 2. US Postal at 12:16. 3. iBanesto.com 18:55.