Mengin wins one for the team; Riis falters in Alps
By Andrew Hood
Outside Online correspondent

Christophe Mengin won the mad dash to the stage finish (625k avi)

After working hard to help teammate Jan Ullrich defend his overall lead in four tough days in the Alps, Riis faltered on the steep, category-one Col de la Croix as the peloton rolled into Switzerland during the 181-kilometer (109-mile) stage, losing more than six minutes and slipping to seventh in the overall standings.

"Riis had a bad day, that’s all," said Telekom’s director sportif Walter Godefroot. "Riis is 5 percent off his winning form from last year and he had difficulty today when the riders attacked."

Riis, the 33-year-old Dane who last year stopped Spain’s Miguel Indurain from becoming the first man to win six Tours, falls nearly eight minutes behind third-place Marco Pantani. Despite being a stronger time trialist than Pantani, it seems unlikely Riis can regain the time in Saturday’s 63-kilometer race against the clock to finish among the revered top three positions.

On the final stretch of the same climb, the final high col of this year’s race, Ullrich also showed signs he’s human. Ullrich, after nearly two weeks of superb riding, faltered as Richard Virenque (Festina) and Pantani accelerated up the col, losing 25 seconds to the pair midway through the course. On the descent, he caught the lead group of riders and easily defended his overall lead with only five stages between him and the Tour’s conclusion July 27 in Paris.

"Yes, I really had a problem because my legs were very tired today," said Ullrich, who’s on track to become the first German to win cycling’s most important race. "Yesterday was a very hard stage and I was not really in a good form today."

Ullrich has dominated this Tour, taking away the team leadership from Riis and staying with the unrelenting attacks from Virenque’s formidable Festina squad. Wednesday’s 218-kilometer (138-mile) stage from Fribourg to Colmar passes near Ullrich’s home in Germany’s Black Forest. Special charter buses will bring tens of thousands of German racing fans to cheer the young German prodigy.

But Ullrich, who appears to be taking lessons from the soft-spoken Indurain when it comes to talking to the press, says the Tour "is not over yet."

"All I have to do is defend the yellow jersey. The Tour is not over until Paris and there’s still five tough days," he said.

The Tour returned to Switzerland for the first time since 1990 today, and thousands of Swiss racing fans lined the course, cheering on the peloton after it rolled out of the Alps and onto the rolling hills of central Switzerland.

It should have been a glorious celebration of Swiss cycling, but most of this mountainous country’s top stars are on the sidelines. Olympic gold medalist Pascal Richard, out with a groin surgery, provided commentary on French TV. ONCE’s Alex Zulle, out with a broken shoulder he injured during June’s Tour de Suisse, was at his family home in Wil. Cofidis’s Tony Rominger, who also broke his shoulder in the Tour’s first week, is recuperating at his home in Monaco.

Swiss racer Laurent Dufaux was in the mix Tuesday, finishing fifth in the stage, but compatriot Rolf Jaermann (Casino) abandoned the race.

The action started early as winless teams scrambled to earn stage wins as the three-week Tour enters its final days. Casino’s Christophe Angolutto, winner of the Tour de Suisse last month, tried unsuccessfully to break early with U.S. Postal’s Vjatceslav Ekimov.

FDJ’s Stephane Heulot and ONCE’s Aitor Garmendia pulled away from a seven-man break on the Col de la Croix and built up a three-minute lead over the category-3 Col des Mosses. They were reeled in on the final 50 kilometers into Fribourg by a chase group powered by Pantani’s Mercatone Uno team and Banesto.

Heulot, who wore the yellow jersey in last year’s Tour, said he was elated teammate Mengin pulled away in the final stretch to win the stage.

"It was a friendship victory because we are very good friends," Heulot said. "The team worked very hard today because we wanted badly to win a stage."

Mengin pulled away from riders not usually found in the heat of the sprint — Festina’s Virenque, Banesto’s Abraham Olano, and Kelme’s Fernando Escartin, riders usually more comfortable on the steeps or on a time-trial bike. Mengin crossed the line two bike lengths ahead of Mapei’s Franck Vandenbroucke and third-place Virenque to win his first career Tour stage.

"We rode very well today and it was really a team victory," said Mengin, France’s cyclocross champion. "We just wanted to win a stage because we have no chance for the overall standings. The racers at the front are playing for the g.c., so I had a chance to win today."

Stage 16 results

Andrew Hood is Outside Online's European cycling correspondent.