Tour de France : Roche Finishes Second but Takes Overall Lead

VILLARD-DE-LANS, France — Stephen Roche of Ireland took the lead of the Tour de France bicycle race Monday by finishing second on the 19th stage in a breakaway with Pedro Delgado of Spain.

Delgado won the 115-mile stage in the Alps from Valreas in 4 hours 53 minutes 34 seconds, with Roche three seconds behind.

Marino Lajaretta and Anselmo Fuerte of Spain and Charles Mottet of France came in 30 seconds later. Luis Herrera of Colombia finished sixth, 1:05 back.

Roche, the Tour of Italy champion, began the day 2:34 behind leader Jean-Francois Bernard. But he trapped the Frenchman on the breakaway to beat him by 4:22 to the finish.

“It’s great,” Roche said. “If I can keep it all the way to Paris it will be excellent, but that will be difficult.

“Delgado is riding better than I have ever seen him. I think he is the most dangerous man in the Tour right now.”

Mottet moved up to second place, with Delgado third, Bernard fourth and Herrera fifth.

Maria Canins of Italy won the 10th stage of the women’s Tour de France, her third stage victory, and retained the overall lead.

She completed the 51.5-mile route from Leoncel to Villard de Lans in 2 hours 34 minutes 52 seconds, outsprinting Jeannie Longo of France.

Canins’ overall time is 17:50:03.

“I was determined to hold onto the yellow jersey,” Canins said. “It was a hard stage and I’m delighted to have won it.”

Roberta Bonanomi of Italy crossed the finish line in third place, 1:02 behind.

Although finishing with the same time as Longo, Canins increased her overall lead from two to seven seconds thanks to catch sprints. The first three riders to cross certain points of the route are awarded time bonuses.

West German Ute Enzenauer is third overall, 6:11 back.