Russian beats Armstrong in Tour stage

[Patrick D. Walters]

 3 15-JUL-1995 12:42 Russian beats Armstrong in Tour stage


   REVEL, France, July 15 (UPI) -- Russian Sergei Uchakov edged former world
champion Lance Armstrong of the United States in a sprint to the finish line
Saturday to win the 13th stage of the Tour de France.
   Miguel Indurain of Spain kept his overall leader's yellow jersey, and the
mountain specialist remains on course for his fifth successive victory in the
tour a day before the race enters the Pyrenees.
   Uchakov and Armstrong led a breakaway after just 24 miles (38 km) that also
included Colombia's Hernan Buenahora and Bruno Cenghialta of Italy.
   But Armstrong, the 1993 world road race champion, was unable to sneak past
the Russian in the last few yards, while Buenahora and Cenghialta were about
one minute further back at the end of the 153-mile (245-km) stage from Mende
to Revel in southwest France.
   It was the first ever stage win in three appearances in the Tour de France
for 27-year-old Uchakov. Since turning professional in 1993, he has won stages
in the Vuelta and the Giro d'Italia.
   "It was like a dream, I would never have imagined it," said a stunned
Uchakov, who was born in the town of Arkhangelsk in the icy far north of
Russia but grew up in Crimea.
   Among the riders forced to withdraw from the tour Saturday were Frenchman
Thierry Laurent and Britain's Sean Yates.
   Friday's 14th stage takes the riders 99 miles (159 km) frm St. Orens de
Gameville to Guzet Neige in the Pyrenees.