Ventoux 'gift' was a mistake says angry Armstrong

A grudge match could be brewing here. With four Alpine mountains left to climb, the Tour de France race leader, Lance Armstrong, and Marco Pantani are at odds. "Marco is here to win stages, and I am here to win the Tour," the American said, responding to the Italian's remarks about victory on Mont Ventoux. "I felt that it was like a gift on Ventoux, and it was also a mistake to give the gift. He is a great rider but he was not the best on Ventoux.

A grudge match could be brewing here. With four Alpine mountains left to climb, the Tour de France race leader, Lance Armstrong, and Marco Pantani are at odds. "Marco is here to win stages, and I am here to win the Tour," the American said, responding to the Italian's remarks about victory on Mont Ventoux. "I felt that it was like a gift on Ventoux, and it was also a mistake to give the gift. He is a great rider but he was not the best on Ventoux.

"At the time I thought that I was doing the right thing, but since I have been disappointed by his attitude and declarations. I still respect him as a rider. The last 12 months have been bad for him, and the way the other day he came back twice and attacked was admirable."

Pantani's pride had been stung, however, and he declared after Ventoux that he did not need to be given mountain stages. Now he wanted to "open up the Tour again', and he intended to break clear of Armstrong on a mountain and win alone. That he achieved at Courchevel on Sunday, and Armstrong admitted yesterday that Pantani was the strongest that day.

"Tuesday is the last day for him, and I will be thinking about it, but I don't want to make a big issue out of it," Armstrong said. "I still plan to try for a stage win, especially based on a certain finish a few days ago."

With his second Tour triumph looking more certain, Armstrong, now 7min 26sec clear of the German Jan Ullrich, did not see himself emulating the élite who have won five.

"Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and MiguelIndurain are a lot more talented than I am. It would crazy to think I could win five," the Texan said.

Jean Marie Leblanc, the Tour's director general, had said that Armstrong should speak French more often if he wanted to be popular in France. "It's not a popularity contest, it's a bike race," Armstrong said. "I love the country and its people, and I live here, but I don't speak so much French. When I tried I was taken advantage of several times, and I don't want to be in that position again."

Ullrich looks set to finish second for the third time in four Tours - which is good, but not good enough, according to his Telekom team chief.

"There are no miracles in sport, unfortunately," Walter Godefroot said. "Of course Jan lost three weeks of preparation because of a viral infection but I also remember he was out of action for 20 days in March for reasons unknown to me. As a result, he had to fight again to lose weight and he was not in the right condition to win the Tour."

A cyclist in a yellow jersey who finished 11th on Sunday's Tour de France was yesterday identified as a Basque separatist. As three genuine Tour riders sprinted for the Courchevel finish a tubby cyclist chased them over the line, raising his arms in a victory salute, and exposing the message on his jersey: "Free the Basque prisoners".

He was arrested as were his two cohorts, one wearing the red polka dot jersey of best climber and the other in Kelme team colours. They had invaded the course just before the mountain-top finish.

Yesterday, a rest day for the riders, Tour organisers and police were considering whether further action was necessary against the giraldillas who have also broken in on television programmes in Spain.

This is not the first time that the Tour has been a victim of Basque separatists. In 1992 media vehicles were set on fire when the race began in San Sebastian, and 25 years ago Basques were responsible for wrecking Tour cars in a garage explosion at St Lary Soulan, near the Spanish frontier.

Today's final Alpine stage to Morzine will begin with a minute's silence at Courchevel for the 12-year-old boy who was fatally injured when a Tour vehicle ran out of control into spectators on Friday.

TOUR DE FRANCE Leading overall standings: 1 L Armstrong (US) US Postal 66hr 38min 09sec; 2 J Ullrich (Ger) Deutsche Telekom +07min 26sec; 3 J Beloki (Sp) Festina +07:28; 4 C Moreau (Fr) Festina +08:22; 5 R Heras (Sp) Kelme +08:25; 6 M Pantani (It) Mercatone Uno +09:03; 7 R Virenque (Fr) Polti +09:57; 8 S Botero (Col) Kelme +10:19; 9 F Escartin (Sp) Kelme +12:27; 10 F Mancebo (Sp) Banesto +12:43. Selected: 37 A Zülle (Swit) Banesto +57:07; 57 L Jalabert (Fr) ONCE +1:19:04; 67 D Millar (GB) Cofidis +1:38:27.