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| |  Sunday, 7 July, 2002, 15:50 GMT 16:50 UK Bertogliati in yellow Bertogliati claimed his first ever professional win Lampre's Rubens Bertogliati raced into the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey after victory in stage one in Luxembourg. The 23-year-old Swiss rider stormed clear with one kilometre to go as the sprinters were amassing for a bunch finish. He held on to clinch the 192km stage - for his first professional win - from Telekom's Erik Zabel and Australian Robbie McEwen. Three-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong finished in the pack on the same time of four hours 49 minutes 16 seconds.
But Bertogliati's 20-second win bonus was enough to overhaul his 17-second deficit from the prologue and put him in yellow ahead of Armstrong. Zabel said: "I have to admit that the young Swiss guy pulled off the perfect tactics for the sprint." Bertogliati leads the general classification by three seconds from Jalabert - who picked up a two-second time bonus - and prologue winner Armstrong. "We (CSC) had the right tactics today," said Jalabert. "But the stage winner proved to be quite tough to beat. I definitely suffered out there." Lithuania's Raimondas Rumsas is six seconds back overall, Columbia's Santiago Botero is seven seconds back and Britain's David Millar is eight seconds behind. The last Swiss to hold the yellow jersey was Alex Zuelle, when he won the prologue in 1996, while the last Swiss winner of a stage was Laurent Dufaux in the same year. Millar will wear Bertogliati's white jersey for the best young rider, while Zabel assumes the green jersey he won last year and Christophe Mengin will sport the King of the Mountains jersey. The peloton rolled out of Luxembourg at 1145 BST and kept up a gentle pace under overcast skies without incident for the first 49 kilomtres. At the first sprint at 50km, Zabel burst clear to gain the bonus points with Australia's Brad McGee in second and Jalabert, significantly, picking up two seconds in third.
But immediately Stephane Berges of the AG2R team launched an attack and was joined by Ludo Dierckxsens (Lampre) and Christophe Mengin (FDJeux.com). The trio built up a lead of over three minutes and stayed clear over the fourth category climbs of the Cote de Hoscheid and Cote de Vianden at 87km. The breakaway stretched the gap to as much as four minutes five seconds before the CSC Tiscali team of Jalabert began to drive the peloton on, whittling down the lead. The field was briefly reunited with about 45 km to go before an assortment of riders launched scattered attacks. But with three kilometres left, the peloton came back together as the sprinters gathered at the front, only to be caught on the hop by Bertogliati. | |
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