Can Miguel Indurain regain the form that's dominated cycling through five straight victories in the Tour de France?
The endurance race resumed today with the start of its second half after a rest day Wednesday. Indurain is in eighth place, more than 4 1/2 minutes behind Bjarne Riis of Denmark, and opinions about Indurain's chances are varied.Indurain lost more than 4 minutes to the leaders in Saturday's climbing stage and didn't make up time in Sunday's first of two time trials, a discipline he typically dominates.
In Monday's and Tuesday's stages, Indurain finished with the leaders and showed signs that he's rebounding from his poor start. With the return of warm weather following nine days of snow, rain and wind, and the Tour rolling past his hometown the day after his 32nd birthday next week in Spain, the soft-spoken Indurain isn't out of the race yet.
"Miguel's recovered and with the return of good weather, that's going to help a lot," said Eusebio Unzue, director for Indurain's Banesto team.
"With the problems, the worst thing that could have happened is the team losing its morale. That's not the case," he said.
Others think different.
"Indurain is still in the race, but he has seven other riders in front of him," said Tony Rominger, 35, who's in third place overall, 53 seconds behind Riis.
"It's possible that one or two riders will have a bad day, but for all us to have a bad day and for him to move all the way up, it's too much," said Rominger, who finished second to Indurain in 1993. "It's going to be more difficult for him than in other years."
If Indurain hopes to become the first man to win six Tours de France, he must make a move quickly. Ahead of him are three other riders within one minute of Riis, who's strong Telekom team has already won three stages in this year's tour.
There's also talk that the Spanish Once team will help Indurain in the closing stages. Once's Laurent Jalabert pulled out of the tour in Tuesday's 10th stage because of a cold and Alex Zulle, who finished second last year, is in 13th place, 8:27 back.
"It's logical because it's another Spanish rider, but I'm Spanish too," Olano said. "We're going to have to see what happens."