TOUR GOES ON AS RIDERS CLOSE RANKS

GRENOBLE, France---What doping scandal? After agreeing with bicycle-racing
authorities to discuss the sport's pharmacological problems in the fall and
deciding not to talk now about anything but the athletic aspect of the Tour
de France, the 147 remaining riders continued Sunday to roll toward their
rendezvous with the Alps. If teams had psychologists instead of sports
doctors they would say the race is in denial.

Unmentioned by anybody on two wheels is the fact that two jailed officials
of the TVM team from the Netherlands are due to be transferred Monday to
the French city of Reims for questioning about the police seizure in March
of a team car carrying illegal performance-enhancing drugs. If the
officials implicate the team Tour of ficials have said, it will be expeiled.

Nevertheless, the riders have closed ranks. "It's a bike race and we're
here to do the bike race and that's all I'll talk about," said a rider in a
typical comment. He declined to be identified.

Frankie Andreu, an American rider with the U.S. Postal Service team,
explained: "I understand the drug story is part of the Tour but it's been
more than a week. It's time the drug story stops and the Tour de France
gets going."

Andreu, who has completed all six of his previous Tours, said he was
impressed with at least three of the overall leaders a day before the race
entered the Alps for three testing stages.

Of Jan Ullrich, the German leader of Telekom, the wearer of the leader's
yellow jersey and the defending champion, Andreu said, "He looks strong. Me
looks good, maybe not as good as last year, but he's going to be hard to
beat."

Bobby Julich, the American leader of the Cofidis team who ranks second
overall, also drew praise from Andreu, his tearnmate last year at Cofidis
and at Motorola for two years before that. "Bobby looks great," he said.
"He's just waiting for the Alps to try to do something. Like Ullrich, he
looks very comfortable."

Marco Pantani, the Italian leader of Mercatone Uno, fourth ranked and the
acknowledged king of the mountains, drew Andreu's praise, although he
tempered it by noting that Pantani is not the time-trial rider that Ullrich
and Julich are. A long race against the clock on Saturday, a day before the
three-week race ends, may decide the result.

"He's incredible," Andreu said. "I donit know about the time trial, but I
think he can take some time back in the mountains to make a difference."

All the leaders retained their positions Sunday as a six-man breakaway by
low-ranked riders at Kilometer 56 of 186.5 (116 miles) was allowed to roll
away over a big climb and then into Grenoble the doorstep to the Alps.

The winner was Stuart O'Grady, an Australian with Gan and the wearer of the
yellow jersey for three days a week ago. He had sunk to 91st, more than 58
minutes behind Ullrich.

He was timed in 4 hours 30 minutes 53 seconds, a speed of 41 kilometers per
hour in this 14th stage of the 85th Tour. The first six finished 10:05
ahead of the pack and O'Grady rose to 78th place.

The weather continued to be hot and muggy but the route passed through
wonderful countryside, including fields of lavender scenting the air below
the Vercors plateau. If only Cezanne had moved his easel about 100
kilometers northeast of his beloved Provence near the start of Sunday's
stage in Valreas.

Anyway, second in the sprint before he was set back to sixth for
interference was Giuseppe Calcaterra, an Italian with Saeco. The new
second-place finisher was Orlando Rodrigues, a Portuguese with Banesto.
Leon Van Bon, a Dutchman with Rabobank was third.

For the second successive day, U.S. Postal Service had a rider in the
breakaway. But again, the mailmen's hopes were marked "Return to Sender."
Peter Meinert-Nielsen, a Dane, was strong, as his teammate, Marty Jemison,
an American, had been Saturday. But like Jemison, Meinert-Nielsen came up
short in the dash to the line, finishing fifth until he was elevated to
fourth.

Andreu dreams of being the Postal Service rider in a break that gets away.

"I'm trying to win something or do something," he said. "In the mountains
the same guys win, in the mass sprints the same guys win, so the other days
are the ones you really have to concentrate on. It's difficult.

"Making that break takes a bit of luck and a bit of form," he said. "You
can join 20 attacks and sometimes it's the 21st that goes. You've got to
gamble and time it right. You go, go, go, go and sometimes it happens."

Not for the next three days, however. Andreu is strong and smart but no
climber.