Ullrich blows away field in TT, consolidates hold on Tour lead
By Andrew Hood
Outside Online correspondent

Germany’s Jan Ullrich beat his top rivals by more than three minutes in Friday’s 55-kilometer (33-mile) individual time trial and all but wrapped up the 1997 Tour de France.

In a decisive victory that confirms that a new era in cycling has arrived, Ullrich finished the 12th stage in one hour, 16 minutes, and 24 seconds to pull more than five minutes ahead of second-place Richard Virenque (Festina).

With nine stages remaining in the three-week Tour, defending champion Bjarne Riis lost another three minutes to teammate Ullrich and is in fourth more than eight minutes back.

If the 23-year-old Telekom rider protects his lead through three upcoming tough climbing stages in the Alps, Ullrich looks certain to become the first German to win cycling’s most prestigious race when the Tour ends July 27 in Paris.

"The gap is very big but there are three very hard days to come in the mountains. Anything can happen and I am afraid of nothing, but afraid of everything," said Ullrich, who’s electrified this year’s Tour with exciting attacks and dominating riding.

Ullrich took the Tour lead with a stage-winning attack in the Pyrenees Tuesday and continued to show his strength by blowing away the field Friday with a strong ride in the rain-soaked "race of truth."

No one could match him on the 3,900-foot pass midway through the course, and in the final 10 kilometers Ullrich even passed Virenque, who started three minutes ahead of him as racers went out one at a time to race against the clock.

"I was very happy when I passed Virenque because then I knew the gap was three minutes. Then I knew I didn’t have to take any risks," said Ullrich, a stage-winner at Saint Emilion’s time trial last year.

Nearly everyone says there are no limits to what this young, disciplined former world amateur champion can do. Indeed, his third-career Tour stage win consolidated his hold on the maillot jaune and demoralized the field, much in the way five-time Tour champion Miguel Indurain could do during his prime.

"Ullrich is the champion. Unless something horrible happens to him, he’s going to win," said Spain’s Abraham Olano, who sits in third overall at eight minutes back. "Ullrich is similar to Indurain, but you can’t say he’s the new Indurain, because Indurain is on a much higher level."

Italy’s Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno), a lithe climber who’s the favorite for Saturday’s L’Alpe d’Huez stage in the French Alps, continued to demonstrate his return to form after a string of injuries that have hampered his performance over the past two seasons.

Pantani finished a surprising fifth in the time trial and says he has designs for a podium finish.

"I thought I wasn’t feeling that good and when I saw the times, I couldn’t believe it. It’s not normal," said Pantani, who won at l’Alpe d’Huez in 1995 and finished third overall in the 1994 Tour. "Today’s ride is very good for me and my confidence going into tomorrow’s climb."

Time trialing is called the "race of truth" because it’s cycling’s lone discipline when the riders are all on equal footing. There are no domestiques to help recover lost time. No other tires to catch a draft on. Only the racer, the course, and the unforgiving clock.

But time trialing is more than just a test of brute force. Technique, concentration, and increasing technology are key components to winning at cycling’s most demanding challenge.

Ullrich demonstrated Friday he has a firm grip on all three. He was the fastest racer throughout the course, building up a 1’44” lead at the top of the category-two Col de la Croix and nearly doubling that margin by the time he passed Virenque.

"I was very nervous before the start because it was the first time I was with the yellow jersey at a time-trial start. I was last and everyone was watching me. There was a lot of pressure," Ullrich said.

Riis, Ullrich, and Pantani were among the racers who changed bikes at the top of the category-two Col de la Croix at the halfway point, exchanging their normal road bikes with high-tech, aerodynamic time-trial bikes.

Early in the day, Mapei’s Franck Vandenbroucke posted the fastest time — he finished 7th at 4’44” — and it stood until the elite final 10 riders hit the course.

U.S. Postal’s Tyler Hamilton was the top American finisher at 27th at 6’54”.

"Everyone’s psyched that we made it through the Pyrenees in one piece. Now we have the Alps, but I’m feeling pretty good," said Hamilton, among the six Americans in this year’s Tour. "The team is riding strong and we feel we’re on track to meet our team goals. We still hope to win a stage and we’re going to make something happen after the Alps."

The skies opened up today and by the time Ullrich hit the pavement it was wet and windy, but not raining. Thousands of fans lined the course, cheering on the top riders as they looped out of Saint-Etienne, an industrial city south of Lyon.

"The public were impressive today. That really helped me a lot,”" said Virenque, last year’s third-place finisher who refuses to concede the race. "I am happy that I’ve raced a good race and now we have the Alps. We’ll see how we do tomorrow in L’Alpe d’Huez and I know there will be two favorites, Pantani and me, and we’ll see how Ullrich does. Then, we have the high Alps and I know that I will have all of France with me."

If it’s true that the climbing stages reveal who won’t win the Tour de France, then it can be said that time trialing reveals who will win cycling’s greatest race. That’s certainly been the case for more than a decade, since France’s Bernard Hinault raised the stakes in time trialing in the 1980s.

In 1989, American Greg Lemond used aerodynamic handlebars to post a dramatic Tour win when he recovered nearly a minute on France’s Laurent Fignon on the race’s final day to win by just eight seconds. And Spain’s Indurain, called "el rey" because he ruled the peloton with such grace, used his prowess in the time trial to win five straight Tours.

Now, with Ullrich on the cusp of joining that club, the Tour heads into the hallowed climbs of L’Alpe d’Huez and the high passes of the Alps.

Stage 12 results

Andrew Hood is Outside Online's European cycling correspondent.