Miguel Indurain of Spain remained the overall leader Saturday in the Tour de France after a flat, 107-mile 14th stage from Saint Gaudens to Castres in which most top riders finished in the pack.
Italian Bruno Cenghialta won the stage in a solo finish in 4 hours, 15 minutes, 51 seconds. The closest follower was Frenchman Jean-Claude Colotti, 20 seconds behind.In the main pack, 1:36 behind the stage winner were the top five riders, Indurain, Frenchman Charly Mottet, Italians Gianni Bugno and Claudio Chiappucci and American Greg LeMond.
Defending champion LeMond, recovering from his collapse in Friday's Pyrenees mountain stage, remained fifth overall, 5:08 behind Indurain.
"I think Greg had a quiet day and recovered a bit," said LeMond's Z team companion, Eric Boyer.
"We tried to take it easy. He stayed in the pack with several of us (temmates) around him."
"When you have already won the Tour three times, you can't take everything in the same way," said LeMond, who said he feels he came can duplicate last year's winning tactic of overhauling the leaders in the final week.
With temperatures near 100 degrees and riders fatigued from Friday's mountainstage, few riders attempted to break away. Cenghialta, a little-known rider from the Ariostea team, held a small breakaway margin over the final 15 miles to take the stage.
In the only change among the top 10, Luc Leblanc of France moved into seventh place by jumping 59 seconds ahead of the main pack.
Forecasters were predicting more hot weather for the 15th stage on Sunday, which is 146 miles from Albi to Ales, with no major climbs, on the way to the Alps.
Indurain is considered to have a commanding lead going into the final eight stages of the race, particularly since he has been the strongest rider in the mountains and the time trials.
The top riders are expected to try to make up lost ground in the two Alps stages, then test Indurain in the Burgundy time trial Saturday over 35 miles in the Tour's next to last day.