too, was in an equally sullen mood, complaining – as so often happened at the time – that 'the organisers always make routes for all-rounders; all I want is a bit of balance. I'm not here,' he concluded darkly, 'to save the Tour.'

The Pyrenees: Two Cheers for Elefantino

Tuesday, 21 July. Stage 10: Pau–Luchon, 196.5 km

Wednesday, 22 July. Stage 11: Luchon–Plateau de Beille, 170 km

Up as far as the Pyrenees, virtually nothing had been seen of Mercatone Uno or Marco Pantani in the Tour de France. Pantani's opening prologue performance had been unremarkable, to say the least, finishing 181st of 189 riders. Unaffected by the police raids – Mercatone Uno had no established direct links with Voet, according to team sources, or with the ongoing investigation into TVM –the promise to the world in general after he was invited on to the French post-race chat show VeloClub, and claiming that 'everybody wants to go on to Paris, everybody', the gendarmes were searching the hotels of Casino, ONCE and Française des Jeux. Two other teams would shortly quit. It was hardly, therefore, either a reassuring or credible message.

In ONCE's case the search had begun well before the peloton had actually reached the finish. Barely half an hour after the Spanish squad had turned up at their hotel for the night, the police turned up, too. 'We saw what they had taken and they took away our team doctor, Nicolás Terrados,' Saiz observes. 'We'd already been in touch with lawyers who then headed to France to fight our