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  Trying to get back to normal Nardello takes 13th stage; Ullrich still in overall lead
Posted: Saturday July 25, 1998 12:16 PM
CARPENTRAS, France (AP) -- Defending champion Jan Ullrich entered the final week of the Tour de France in the leader's yellow jersey. Still it will take a lot for him to be noticed after all the problems plaguing the Tour recently. Italian Daniel Nardello won Saturday's 13th stage in a sprint finish over a small group of riders that broke away from the pack. They built up a five-minute lead at one point in the leg from Frontigan-la-Peyrade to Carpentras, 196 kilometers (122 miles) Saturday. With temperatures above 35 C (95 F) and no threats in the group ahead, the major favorites conserved their strength with the Alps looming. Vicente Garcia-Acosta of Spain was second with Italian Andrea Tafi third ahead of Frenchman Stephane Heulot and American Marty Jemison. The pack whittled the margin at the end to under three minutes. Ullrich, the defending champion, was in the main group and held on to his lead of 71 seconds over American Bobby Julich. France's Laurent Jalabert, who led the protest the day before that delayed the Tour for two hours, is still third, 3:01 back. Marco Pantani of Italy is fourth, also 3:01 back. Sunday's stage is from Valreas to Grenoble, 187 kilometers (116 miles), the last day before the Alps. Jalabert was instrumental in getting a meeting with riders and officials from the sport's governing body to calm the atmosphere that has been tense over the continuing amount of drug revelations and speculations. Friday he said riders were all irritated that cycling had taken a backseat to the doping investigation that has plagued the Tour since before its start two weeks ago in Ireland. "The riders were the ones hit by the criticisms. So the racers want to change things. The sporting power has just to listen to us," said Jalabert. Saturday morning, before the start of the 13th stage, Jalabert met with Daniel Baal, the vice-president of the International Cycling Union to discuss a number of things, including the way the doping situation is being handled. Arter the meeting Baal said there will be a major meeting in the off-season between riders, UCI, cycling federations and doctors. "There is a determined effort by the UCI to solve the problems," Baal said. "But we cannot do it now in the middle of this." Baal said that a number of drug issues will be discussed, including the research into establishing a "health control card" which will show the normal levels of various substances within the body of a cyclist. The UCI will also look at the calendar to possibly reduce the major races. Jalabert said that the riders agreed not to answer any more questions concerning the doping scandal which has plagued the Tour since before its start in Ireland two weeks ago. Since then three officials of the Festina team were charged and jailed in the doping scandal, the Festina team was kicked out of the Tour and its riders were taken by police to be questioned. Some members of the Festina team confessed to police that they took drugs to improve their performances, according to LCI news television. The Dutch team TVM also came under investigation. The team's director and doctor were ordered jailed over the weekend. They were expected to be brought to Reims in further investigation concerning a drug seizure in the car of one of its officials in March.
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