France's cyclists have had an awkward circle to square in recent years: their home Tour is the most hotly contested and prestigious bike race in the world, yet their fans still expect them to take it by storm.

Until the slender, aquiline-nosed, crew-cut Christophe Agnolutto rode up Boulevard Beaublanc to cross the finish line in glorious if exhausted solitude in Limoges yesterday, no Frenchman had won a stage in the Tour de France since Jacky Durand's sprint win at Montauban in the 1998 race on July 19th; that was France's worst record since 1926.

It had become something of a worry for the organisers as well as a national embarrassment accentuated by the success of Les Bleus.

Agnolutto is relatively unknown for a man who in 1998 won the Tour of Switzerland - the fourth hardest stage race in the calendar after the French, Spanish and Italian Tours - and the reason is that he has never shone at home in July.

Yesterday he won the hard way, attacking alone as the race crossed a particularly windswept plain on the road south from Tours, carving out an advantage and clinging on grimly for more than 75 miles as the rain swept in over Haute Limousin.

Towards the end his legs visibly buckled and his head began to hang with exhaustion, making for an emotional arrival. But it was still no match for the Tour's last finish here, when Lance Armstrong - chubbier, brasher, more youthful - also rode in alone, pointing his fingers to the sky in tribute to his team-mate Fabio Casartelli, who had died on the race a few days earlier. Armstrong still describes that victory as the greatest of his career.

As Agnolutto started the day in 82nd place, which was more than 11 minutes behind the 36-year-old race leader Alberto Elli, he was given his head by Elli's Deutsche Telekom team.