Well, four riders are within 127 seconds of each other and the 48-kilometer individual test from Cluses to Morzine will determine things.
Unfortunately, Miguel Indurain is more than seven minutes in the lead and the battle is for second place. Indurain is well on his way to his fourth consecutive title and should add more to it.
None of the riders were looking forward to Friday's uphill time trial, which is not so vital for Indurain.
"He's so strong that he doesn't care, but for the others it's hell," said Frenchman Ronan Pensec, not in the running for a top spot.
Indurain won the first long time trial 11 days ago by two minutes over Tony Rominger -- and Rominger is not in the race anymore. Neither are Claudio Chiappucci nor Gianni Bugno, Italians who could have challenged Indurain in the mountains.
Three-time champion Greg LeMond is long gone, as is the man who beat Indurain in the short prologue, Chris Boardman, a speed specialist with little hope in the long run against Indurain. American Lance Armstrong, who might yet be a threat to Indurain in the future, lasted until last Monday.
So all that is left is to see who among Richard Virenque of France, Piotr Ugrumov of Latvia, Marco Pantani of Italy and Luc Leblanc of France gets the second place.
Virenque has a lead of 83 seconds over Ugrumov, who won Friday's 19th stage. Pantani is two more seconds back with a lead of 32 seconds over Leblanc. But Indurain is in a class by himself, 7:22 ahead of Virenque.
The Spaniard made a bold move in the final downhill portion to finish second to Ugrumov in the 18th stage -- the last contested completely in the Alps.
Just before the top of the final peak of the 1,614-meter Colombiers, Indurain broke away from a group that included the other four overall leaders.On the final downhill stretch, Indurain picked up more ground. He and Virenque were able to put about 45 seconds between themselves and the other riders while finishing less than three minutes behind Ugrumov.
One noted dropout Thursday was France's Armand De Las Cuevas, who did not start after catching bronchitis. He was third overall two days earlier, but lost more than 20 minutes in Wednesday's stage.
The race ends Sunday in Paris.
(AP, Reuters)
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