1997 Tour de France
Zabel disqualified, Steels thrown out of Tour in frantic final sprints; Abdo fails doping test
By Andrew Hood
Outside Online correspondent
 |
Tom Steels throws his water bottle at another competitor
(565k avi) |
Tour de France officials disqualified Friday’s stage-winner Erik Zabel (Telekom) and threw Mapei’s Tom Steels out of the race after a dangerous sprint into the finish of the sixth stage. Officials also threw out third-place finisher Djamolidin Abdoujaparov (Lotto) for failing anti-doping tests.
The race jury decisions came after one of the most dangerous sprints so far in the three-week Tour. Gan’s Cedric Vasseur retained the overall lead after the 215-kilometer (129-mile) stage from Le Blanc to Marennes in western France.
Zabel won the sprint, but the race jury said the 27-year-old German cut off several riders in the final 500 yards. Steels, 26, was kicked out of the race after the Belgian sprinter threw his water bottle in disgust at a rider as racers roared into the heated final sprint.
Abdoujaparov was given the boot after failing anti-doping tests conducted during the Tour’s second stage. The nine-time Tour stage-winner was third behind TVM’s Jeroen Blijlevens, who becomes the official Stage 6 winner, barring more last-minute jury announcements.
 |
Erik Zabel makes his way to
the finish line head-first
(726k avi) |
Tour de France official John Lelangue said Steels’s removal was the first time a Tour rider has been ejected for unruly behavior.
"It’s the first time we’ve had this sort of disqualification. Normally we have them for doping. But for this sort of behavior, it’s the first time," Lelangue said. "It is too dangerous.”
The decisions give Blijlevens the stage win, with Mercatone Uno’s Mario Traversoni in second and Batik’s Nicola Minali in third. Zabel, meanwhile, is moved to the bottom of the day’s first group in the stage, but retains the green points jersey and moves into second overall.
Officials also fined Zabel 200 Swiss Francs (US$142) and Steels 400 Swiss Francs (US$284).
For Steels, one of Belgium’s rising stars, he’s out of cycling’s most important race in his Tour debut, leaving the Mapei squad without its top sprinter.
“It’s a bad day for me because it’s my first Tour,” said a dejected Steels. “In cycling, there’s a lot of emotion, especially in the sprints. I was too emotional today.”
 |
One mishap sends riders down "like a pack of cards"
(505k avi) |
Just 200 yards from the finish, with racers weaving across the course jostling for position, Steels was boxed out and threw his water bottle at a racer. After the race, Steels stormed up to French sprinter Frédéric Moncassin and accused him of throwing elbows, but the Gan sprinter insisted it wasn’t him.
TVM team officials said they didn’t dispute the sprint, but said they were glad the jury reviewed the tapes.
“We didn’t make a protest, but it was the jury that decided,” said TVM’s director sportif Hendrik Redant.
After three crashes earlier in the day, tension was high when the peloton roared into Marennes, a coastal town famous for its oysters. Zabel made his illegal charge 500 yards from the finish, when he cut hard in front of Blijlevens to attack up the left side of the road. Blijlevens recovered to finish second with Abdoujaparov third.
“It’s not the way I like to win, but when everyone’s sprinting so hard and they notice something is wrong, then the jury decides. I’m the winner and it’s fair play for everyone,” Blijlevens said.
Three crashes marred the stage that took the peloton over tight, cramped country roads through small, picturesque farming villages that dot the rolling countryside of western France.
 |
Another pile-up plagues an already messy Stage 6
(750k avi) |
The final crash splintered the peloton into three groups, with 40 riders finishing 48 seconds back and another 22 riders 1’31” back. Four more riders limped in at 5’38” back.
Four riders were seriously injured, including pre-race favorite Euvegny Berzin (Batik), who fractured his left clavicle, and 1997 Giro d’Italia champion Ivan Gotti (Saeco), who was taken to the hospital for X-rays.
All the other pre-race favorites finished with the first group. U.S. Postal’s George Hincapie posted the best American finish in the stage at 34th. Cofidis’s Frankie Andreu remains the top American in the overall standings in 17th at 3’38” back.
Earlier in the stage, the peloton was rerouted 4 kms at the 79km mark to avoid a blockade by farmers protesting plans to dump nuclear waste in the region.
It's not uncommon for protesters to use the high-profile Tour to propagate their messages. Last year angry farmers threw nails on the course in the Massif Central, and later in Spain, Basque separatists briefly blocked the course during the Pamplona stage.
The race’s tempo was slow over the first half of the course. Big Mat’s Pascal Lance held a breakaway for 25 kms in the middle of the stage and Abdoujaparov pulled away with Casino’s Ralf Jaermann to hold a two-minute lead for 32 kms before being reeled in 12 kms from the finish.
At the day’s lone climb, the category-four Cote de Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe at 17 kms, Festina’s Laurent Brochard topped out first to keep the climber’s jersey for another day.
Gan retained its lead in the team standings, with U.S. Postal in third.
Saturday’s seventh stage is yet another flat day, 194 kms (116 miles) from Marennes to Bordeaux, the wine capital of southwestern France.
Stage 6 results
Andrew Hood is Outside Online's European cycling correspondent.
|
