Laiseka basks in the glory of 'home' victory

The tour became the Tour of the Basque Country for a day as tens of thousands of fans crossed the nearby border to watch Roberto Laiseka ­ born in Gernika, the symbolic centre of the Basque region ­ take the biggest stage win of his career at Luz Ardiden.

Riding through a sea of supporters in the orange colours of his Euskaltel-Euskadi team, and waving the Basque national flag, Laiseka took off with seven miles to go on the last of the Pyrenean mountain-top finishes. After a brief moment of weakness just before catching earlier breakaway Vladimir Belli, he quickly overtook the Italian and then began his long lone climb to glory.

Despite a last-minute charge by Jan Ullrich, with, as ever, Lance Armstrong in tow, the 32-year-old Basque still had time to cross himself twice and blow kisses to the crowd before crossing the line.

"Winning in the Pyrenees would be as if Athletic Bilbao won the Champions' League," Laiseka ­ a keen Bilbao fan ­ had said before starting what was the first Tour for him and his team. Before yesterday's win he had come closest to success on Friday after finishing second behind Colombian Felix Cardenas at Ax-les-Thermes.

"I knew Luz Ardiden was the best chance for me, though," Laiseka said later, "short and hard, and closest to home on the map." The Basque Country is Spain's cycling heartland ­ despite having just 10 per cent of the overall population, it produces 40 per cent of its professionals ­ and until three years ago, Laiseka's team was backed purely by individual contributions from some 5,000 Basque fans.

With the team nearing bankruptcy and the manager forced to sell his home to keep the squad alive, Basque phone company Euskaltel stepped in as main sponsor. But the policy of only signing riders who were born or who had served their apprenticeship as amateur cyclists in the area was maintained, keeping the team ­ like Laiseka's beloved Athletic Bilbao ­ a purely local affair.

The last rider to survive from the team's earliest days in 1994, and the winner of their first breakthrough success in a Tour of Spain stage in 1999, Laiseka had taken two top 10 places in the Tour's two Alpine stages, despite crashing three times in the first week. "I've seen a lot of changes, that's for sure," he said afterwards. "People thought we would make the news once and then disappear off the map, but this year we even had the money to buy a team bus. Winning in the Tour in front of so many Basque fans, though, is something I will never forget."

Cycling, like football, is a highly politicized sport in Spain, and many of the Basques ­ who easily outnumbered the French on the final climb of the day ­ were waving black and white posters demanding that prisoners from the terrorist group ETA be relocated to prisons in Euskadi. Laiseka, despite being well-known for his strong nationalist views, did not comment on this.

However, whilst the biggest cheers were for the pint-sized climber, the Basques also urged on another rider from the region, Joseba Beloki, after he was dropped by Armstrong and Ullrich with a mile and a quarter to go. The ONCE-Eroski rider finally finished 1min 39sec behind his fellow countryman, enough to move into fourth overall.

In the great duel between the race leader, Armstrong, and his most persistent attacker, Ullrich, the German appears to have thrown in the towel and settled for second place. The American followed the 1997 Tour winner when he attacked close to the line, but the distance was too short for Ullrich to have made any serious inroads on Armstrong's five-minute overall lead.

When the two clasped hands as they crossed the line in the same time, it looked clearer than ever that for this year at least they have finally signed a declaration of peace ­ with Ullrich admitting defeat.

Alasdair Fotheringham writes for Cycling Weekly

YESTERDAY'S TOUR RESULTS

STAGE 14 (Tarbes to Luz Ardiden 144.5km): 1 R Laiseka (Sp) Euskaltel 4 hr 24min 30sec; 2 W Belli (It) Fassa Bortolo +54sec; 3 J Ullrich (Ger) Deutsche Telekom +1:08; 4 L Armstrong (US) US Postal same time; 5 R Heras (Sp) US Postal +1:29; 6 J Beloki (Sp) ONCE-Eroski +1:39; 7 O Sevilla (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca s/t; 8 D Rous (Fr) Bonjour +2:01; 9 A Kivilev (Kaz) Cofidis +2:27; 10 I Gonzalez-Galdeano (Sp) ONCE-Eroski +2:30; 11 F Cardenas (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca +2:42; 12 M Serrano (Sp) ONCE-Eroski +3:05; 13 S Garzelli (It) Mapei-Quick Step +3:27; 14 I Chaurreau (Sp) Euskaltel s/t; 15 D Moncoutie (Fr) Cofidis +3:49; 16 J-L Rubiera (Sp) US Postal +3:55; 17 S Botero (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca +3:57; 18 A Merckx (Bel) Domo-Farm Frites s/t; 19 S Montgomery (Swit) Française des Jeux +4:00; 20 B Salmon (Fr) AG2r Prevoyance +4:28.

Leading overall standings: 1 L Armstrong (US) US Postal Service 62hr 15min 04sec; 2 J Ullrich (Ger) Deustche Telekom +5:05; 3 A Kivilev (Kaz) Cofidis +5:13; 4 J Beloki (Sp) ONCE-Eroski +6:33; 5 F Simon (Fr) Bonjour +10:54; 6 I Gonzalez-Galdeano (Sp) ONCE-Eroski +12:04; 7 O Sevilla (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca +13:55; 8 S Botero (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca +17:49; 9 M Serrano (Sp) ONCE-Eroski +19:20; 10 S Garzelli (It) Mapei-Quick Step +19:45; 11 R Heras (Sp) US Postal +21:37; 12 D Rous (Fr) Bonjour +21:57; 13 F Mancebo (Sp) Ibanesto.com +24:26; 14 I Chaurreau (Sp) Euskaltel +24:45; 15 A Vinokourov (Kaz) Deutsche Telekom +30:32; 16 M Boogerd (Neth) Rabobank +31:18; 17 S Montgomery (Swit) Française des Jeux +39:11; 18 L Jalabert (Fr) CSC-Tiscali +42:04; 19 C Sastre (Sp) ONCE-Eroski +44:38; 20 A Merckx (Bel) Domo-Farm Frites +44:45.