Limoges, France, July 7 2000 – France ended their embarrassing two year wait for
a stage win in their own race when Christophe Agnolutto won the 205.5km seventh stage
of the Tour de France from Tours today.

You could almost hear the sighs of "Enfin!" echo round the country as Agnolutto’s
128.5km solo heroics gave France her first triumph on home soil since Jacky Durand
flew the flag at Montauban in 1998.



The 30-year-old AG2R man, winner of the 1997 Tour of Switzerland, split from the
peloton at around 80km and at one point held a lead of over seven minutes. It was
an impressively tenacious performance from the Frenchman given that he rode, head
down, into driving wind and rain for long periods of the stage.

"The fact that I am the first French winner for two years is pretty cool!"
he enthused at the finish.

"I thought it was a bit risky to go on my own but it worked because I had the
power in my legs. Most of the time it doesn’t work but today it did."

Memorycard’s Michael Sandstod made a last ditch attempt to close the gap on Agnolutto
(see below) but it amounted to nothing in the end and he was swallowed up by the
peloton 1km from the line.

Marcel Wust continued his rich vein of form by leading the peloton over the finish
in 2nd place, beating Erik Zabel and simultaneously picking up the green jersey in
the process. It’s been a fantastic week for procycling’s little columnist- two jersey’s,
a stage win and the real prospect of making Erik Zabel fight all the way for his
fifth consecutive green jersey. (see his comments below)

Results & overall standings:

1. Christophe Agnolutto (Fra/AG2), 205.5 km in 5 h 11:41.

(average speed: 39.56 km/h)

2. Marcel Wust (Ger/FES) at 01:11.

3. Erik Zabel (Ger/TEL) 01:11.

4. Romans Vainsteins (Lit/VIN) 01:11.

5. Zoran Klemencic (Slo/VIN) 01:11.

6. Paolo Bettini (Ita/MAP) 01:11.

7. Jans Koerts (Hol/FAR) 01:11.

8. Stefano Zanini (Ita/MAP) 01:11.

9. Enrico Cassani (Ita/PLT) 01:11.

10. Glenn Magnusson (Swe/FAR) 01:11.

11. Lauri Aus (Est/AG2) 01:11.

12. Nico Mattan (Bel/COF) 01:11.

13. Sebastien Hinault (Fra/C.A) 01:11.

14. Massimiliano Mori (Ita/SAE) 01:11.

15. Emmanuel Magnien (Fra/FDJ) 01:11.

16. Bo Hamburger (Den/MCJ) 01:11.

17. Gianluca Bortolami (Ita/VIN) 01:11.

18. Pascal Chanteur (Fra/AG2) 01:11.

19. Lance Armstrong (USA/USP) 01:11.

20. Andreas Klier (Ger/FAR) 01:11.

21. Marco Pantani (Ita/MER) 01:11.

22. Pascal Herve (Fra/PLT) 01:11.

23. Laurent Dufaux (Swi/SAE) 01:11.

24. Christophe Moreau (Fra/FES) 01:11.

25. Laurent Jalabert (Fra/ONC) 01:11.

26. Michael Boogerd (Hol/RAB) 01:11.

27. Dario Pieri (Ita/SAE) 01:11.

28. Salvatore Commesso (Ita/SAE) 01:11.

29. Rik Verbrugghe (Bel/LOT) 01:11.

30. Jacky Durand (Fra/LOT) 01:11.

General Classification:



1. Alberto Elli (Ita/TEL) 24 h 11:32.

2. Fabrice Gougot (Fra/C.A) at 00:12.

3. Marc Wauters (Bel/RAB) 01:17.

4. Pascal Chanteur (Fra/AG2) 02:56.

5. Jose Luis Arrieta (Spa/BAN) 03:08.

6. Jacky Durand (Fra/LOT) 03:21.

7. Salvatore Commesso (Ita/SAE) 03:52.

8. Servais Knaven (Hol/FAR) 04:31.

9. Arvis Piziks (Lit/MCJ) 04:38.

10. Laurent Jalabert (Fra/ONC) 05:40.

11. David Canada (Spa/ONC) 05:52.

12. Lance Armstrong (USA/USP) 05:54.

13. Abraham Olano (Spa/ONC) 06:13.

14. Emmanuel Magnien (Fra/FDJ) 06:17.

15. Viatcheslav Ekimov (Rus/USP) 06:23.

16. Nicolas Jalabert (Fra/ONC) 06:29.

17. Ivan Gutierrez (Spa/ONC) 06:29.

18. Peter Luttenberger (Aut/ONC) 06:31.

19. Marcos Serrano (Spa/ONC) 06:32.

20. Miguel Angel Pena (Spa/ONC) 06:34.

21. Tyler Hamilton (USA/USP) 06:35.

22. Jan Ullrich (Ger/TEL) 06:37.

23. Kevin Livingston (USA/USP) 06:58.

24. Jens Voigt (Ger/C.A) 06:58.

25. George Hincapie (USA/USP) 07:03.

26. Erik Zabel (Ger/TEL) 07:18.

27. Leon Van Bon (Hol/RAB) 07:27.

28. Jonathan Vaughters (USA/C.A) 07:52.

29. Bobby Julich (USA/C.A) 07:55.

30. Magnus Backstedt (Swe/C.A) 07:59.

31. David Millar (GBR/COF) 08:07.

Stats corner: who’s got what after stage 7

Green jersey (points category):

1. Marcel Wust (Ger/FES) 133 pts

2. Erik Zabel (Ger/TEL) 130

3. Tom Steels (Bel/MAP) 100

4. Jans Koerts (Hol/FAR) 87

5. Romans Vainsteins (Lit/VIN) 82

6. Emmanuel Magnien (Fra/FDJ) 69

7. Stefano Zanini (Ita/MAP) 64

8. Robbie McEwen (Aus/FAR) 62

9. Salvatore Commesso (Ita/SAE) 56

10. Jacky Durand (Fra/LOT) 55



King of the Mountains:

1. Paolo Bettini (Ita/MAP) 16 pts

2. Sebastien Demarbaix (Bel/LOT) 10

3. Markus Zberg (Swi/RAB) 8

4. Christophe Agnolutto (Fra/AG2) 5

5. Jacky Durand (Fra/LOT) 5

6. Marcel Wust (Ger/FES) 5

7. Richard Virenque (Fra/PLT) 5

8. Erik Dekker (Hol/RAB) 4

9. Jens Voigt (Ger/C.A) 4

10. Francois Simon (Fra/BJT) 4



Teams, overall:

1. Rabobank 72 h 36:31.

2. Telekom at 12:06.

3. Credit Agricole 13:08.

4. ONCE 15:40.

5. US Postal 16:45.

6. AG2R Prevoyance 20:14.

7. Memory Card-JACK & JONES 21:27.

8. Banesto 21:55.

9. Festina 22:31.

10. Cofidis 24:31.

11. Saeco 25:22.

12. Mapei 25:54.

13. Lotto 26:08.

14. Farm Frites 26:46.

15. Mercatone Uno 27:19.

16. La Francaise des Jeux 29:15.

17. Kelme 32:54.

18. Polti 33:10.

19. Vini Caldirola 34:54.

20. Bonjour 38:52.



White jersey (best young rider):

1. Salvatore Commesso (Ita/SAE) 24 h 15:24.

2. David Canada (Spa/ONC) at 02:00.

3. Ivan Gutierrez (Spa/ONC) 02:37.

4. Magnus Backstedt (Swe/C.A) 04:07.

5. David Millar (GBR/COF) 04:15.

6. Grischa Niermann (Ger/RAB) 05:26.

7. Francisco Mancebo (Spa/BAN) 07:06.

8. Dario Pieri (Ita/SAE) 07:22.

9. Benoit Joachim (Lux/USP) 08:09.

10. Guido Trentin (Ita/VIN) 08:14.



Most combative rider:



1. Jens Voigt (Ger/C.A) 46 pts

2. Jacky Durand (Fra/LOT) 44

3. Christophe Agnolutto (Fra/AG2) 44

4. Erik Dekker (Hol/RAB) 43

5. Michael Blaudzun (Dan/MCJ) 21