THE peloton is an unpredictable entity, and its mood can change abruptly. At the start of this Tour it was grim faced to a man, unwilling to race due to headwinds, rain and dangerous roads. With the arrival of the sun, the average speeds soared but yesterday, as they headed for the resorts of the Cote Basque - again in blistering heat - a holiday torpor seemed to set in early.

As the 129 survivors rolled out of Pamplona, they may have been in the saddle, but their minds and legs had clearly been numbed by the intensity of the two days in the Pyrenees, when stars and also rans had suffered alike. A mere 17 miles were covered in the first hour after the start flag was dropped outside Miguel Indurain's modest bungalow on the outskirts of the city.

It was entirely in keeping with the mood of the stage that whereas the threats of interference with the race from the separatists had largely failed to materialise, the organisers found themselves dealing with a revolt from the race's motorcyclists. They and their photographer passengers dice with death in the mountains as much as the cyclists, and the motards were outraged when two of their number were knocked down at 50 miles per hour by a team car on Wednesday. This led to a disruption of TV coverage yesterday.

Although Bjarne Riis's domination in the Pyrenees had settled the overall winner beyond doubt, there were still minor issues to settle yesterday as the race repeatedly crossed the Franco Spanish border. Thus when the day's 14 man escape was released, it contained two members of the Festina team, who began the day determined to reinforce the narrow lead they took on Wednesday in the team rankings.

For others, such as Alberto Elli, Michele Bartoli and the Australian Patrick Jonker, places in the top 20 were the lure. The breakaway was permitted to finish almost 17 minutes ahead, moving Jonker - in his first Tour - to 12th, the only bright spot in the Spanish ONCE team's disastrous race.

In the final run along the clifftops from Saint Jean de Luz to Hendaye, Riis's Telekom team looked set to underline their domination of the race when their German national champion Christian Henn slipped away from the 14 with Bart Voskamp of Holland.

Henn looked by far the stronger of the two, but Voskamp has a degree in biochemistry, and in the end brains outwitted brawn. In the final kilometre Voskamp clung to Henn's wheel like a leech, then outsprinted him.