THE RACE LIVE

The film of the stage

Senor Serrano’s Sweet Success

“This is a way of re-launching the Liberty team’s plane,” said Marcos Serrano. The champion of the 18th stage of the 2005 Tour de France resorted to a typical Spanish expression when asked for his thoughts on the second victory of his 13-year professional career. The Liberty Seguros-Wurth squad came to the race filled with ambition. The team’s director Manolo Saiz believed that his riders were not only capable of stage wins, but also a high place in the general classification. After 17 stages, however, the best they had achieved were some top 10 finishes courtesy of their Australian recruit Allan Davis. In the GC stakes there was a veritable drought for a formation that boasts both Roberto Heras and Joseba Beloki as its star riders.
Serrano began the stage one place ahead of the triple winner of the Vuelta A Espana, Heras, in the overall rankings. The 32-year-old worked his way into a 10-man escape group that netted a gain of over 15 minutes on the real protagonists and then outwitted his day-long companions on the cruel closing ascent.
In what was considered the last climbing stage of the Tour’s 92nd edition the potential existed for the likes of Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and Mickael Rasmussen to attack Lance Armstrong. It would have required a freakish effort for any of the riders in the top 10 to eclipse the American’s leading margin on the final ascent but strange things can occur in the Tour de France. When it comes to acquiring the yellow jersey at the end of the Armstrong Era, however, no one has been bold enough – or strong enough – to topple the man who has dominated the world’s biggest race since his comeback from cancer in 1999.
When the Tour last visited Mende, Mr Jalabert threw caution into the wind. He attacked the peloton, established an escape group with five other riders – including two team-mates – and threatened the overall lead of Miguel Indurain. This is the reason that the Cote de la Croix-Neuve received a second title.
The ‘Montee Laurent Jalabert’ is short but steep. It is a climb which split Serrano’s 10-man escape group into pieces and nullified the opportunity for Axel Merckx to give Belgium a victory on the day his country celebrates ‘National Day’. Poor Axel. He was so close to success again. The son of Eddy almost claimed a coup on Bastille Day. A week ago he put himself in the winning move but his hopes for a victory were foiled by an inspired Frenchman.
Today Merckx appeared to be in control. Together with Mattias Kessler, Luke Roberts, Xabier Zandio, Franco Pellizotti, Cedric Vasseur, Thomas Voeckler, Egoi Martinez and Serrano he swapped off at the front of the stage. These 10 riders reached the penultimate climb with an advantage of a quarter of an hour on the peloton which was controlled by the Discovery Channel team.
Axel came to the race with hopes of achieving a result. Why else would he leave behind his second daughter who was born only two days before the ‘Grand Depart’?
Even halfway through the stage, Armstrong took a moment to declare to French television who he thought the winner would be. “I’m not going too bad for an old man,” said the rider who has just three days to go in his racing career. When prompted for his thoughts on the stage, the American smilled and said, “I think the winner will be Axel.”
So did Merckx. Why else would he have spent so much energy on the final climb?
He ignited the action after over 180km in the saddle and appeared to be in control. But Serrano is one of Saiz’s recruits and the outspoken boss of the Liberty-Wurth team boss needed another result in Mende. Senor Serrano might not have the same pedigree as Monsieur Jalabert but at he was motivated and strong enough to respond to Merckx’s attacks and then try one of his own. That was all it took. He got to celebrate his first success at the Tour with a two handed salute before any other rider even reached the finishing straight which was actually placed on an aerodrome atop the ‘Montee’.
While Serrano’s plane was taking off, Merckx mood was at a low ebb. Why else would he have chastised Cedric Vasseur who sprinted past him in the dying meters to claim second place?
All Merckx needed on the final climb was a bit of cooperation from the Frenchman and they could have been racing for first place rather than the runner-up position. That’s life. The Merckx name is synonymous with success at the Tour and Axel wanted a part of it, especially in the week when his former team-mate from his formative years is about to set an entirely new standard. There’s one more stage for an opportunist to put their name on the winners list at the 2005 Tour for the final weekend is when the Texan will earn all the headlines. He’s still chasing a stage win and the time trial for stage 20 should provide that platform. The next day, Armstrong’s career will conclude. And we now know that there’s virtually nothing that can stop him from winning yet again.

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