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| |  Sunday, 15 July, 2001, 15:58 GMT 16:58 UK O'Grady takes Tour lead Erik Dekker takes a rainy stage win in Le Tour Stage eight of the Tour de France from Colmar to Pontarlier. Dutchman Erik Dekker has won a cold and rainy stage eight of the Tour de France, in a close sprint finish ahead of Spain's Aitor Gonzalez. But Stuart O'Grady took his share of the glory, clawing back the yellow jersey - worn by the overall race leader - from Credit Agricole team-mate, Jens Voigt. And the Australian also retained the green jersey, as points leader of the Tour, having notched useful sprint points during the day.
Fourteen riders managed to open up a record-breaking gap of almost 33 minutes over the peloton, before fragmenting in the closing stages ahead of the finish in Pontarlier. Tour favourites, Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich, finished more than 35 minutes back in the main pack. Although they trail O'Grady by about 40 minutes overall, both are likely to steal back a lot of time on forthcoming mountain stages. O'Grady is not known as a good climber and lost over 40 minutes to Armstrong in the first mountain stage alone in 1999.
"That was really, really hard and it was absoulutely freezing out there," a trembling O'Grady said afterwards. Dekker, meanwhile, attributed his fourth-ever Tour stage win to the peloton's fatigue. "A lot of riders are tired after a week of very fast racing, and nobody wants to make the effort. "It was cold but I was motivated enough to make the breakaway." Del Olmo out In other Tour news, Txema Del Olmo, of Spain, has been dropped by his team, Euskaltel, after failing a dope test. The preliminary result of a urine test performed after the prologue in Dunkirk, revealed that Del Olmo "tested positive for abnormalities," his Euskaltel team said. Le Tour continues on Monday with a 185-km stage from Pontarlier to Aix-les-Bains. Stage eight results: 1. Erik Dekker (Ned) 4hr 59min 18sec | |
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