The 175 remaining riders in the Tour enjoyed their only off-day of this year's race. They were gathering their strength for Friday's 12th stage of 204 kilometers (127 miles), with two more major climbs, the famous Tourmalet, 2,115 meters (6,937 feet) and Luz Ardidan, 1,715 meters.
Most of the riders could probably use the rest day to recover from the first mountain stage that ended with Indurain leaving a lot of damage in his trail.
Among them was Tony Rominger, who was expected to be the only real challenger for this year's race.
Between the individual time trial Monday and Wednesday's mountain, Rominger lost more than four minutes and declared the race is probably over.
"It's finished for me," Rominger told the French sports daily L'Equipe. "Of course. I am going to continue ... but I can't compete with him."
Another rider who had a bad day was Italian Claudio Chiappucci, who spat blood on the road and barely finished. At the end of the stage he was surrounded by his Carrera teammates so he was not officially last. But the six Carrera riders took the last six places of the stage and Chiappucci is now 135th in the overall standings. He had finished in the top six since 1990.
Barring illness or accident, Indurain seems assured of his fourth consecutive Tour title. No one has won four, but Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault and Belgian Eddy Merckx each have five.
Indurain just keeps rolling towards them. Although threatened in the mountains stages last year by Rominger, he stayed with him and lost only a few seconds in two tough Alp legs.
Now with advantage of minutes, not seconds, he can even afford to take it easy a day or two, while would-be challengers burn themselves out.
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