August 2/98 11:33 am - Steels Makes It 4 in Final Tour Stage

Posted by Editor on 08/2/98
 

Steels Wins Final Stage of Tour

The 85th edition of the Tour de France has finished with the traditional gallop down the Champs Elysees in Paris. The field stayed together until the start of the final 10 laps arond the streets of Paris, when Casino‚s Pascal Chanteur slipped away - literally, since a slight rain was making the roads greasy. Around this time, Pantani had a slight scare when he flatted, with about 48 kilometres to go, but his team soon brought him back up to the pack. Chanteur was brought back and a break consisting of Vjatceslav Ekimov (US Postal) and Stephané Heulot (FDJ) had a go with 2 laps remaining. However, the sprinters would not allow any break to stay away, and brought the pair back shortly after the start of the last lap. This set up the sprint finish, with Mapei‚s Tom Steels taking his fourth stage of the Tour, ahead of team mate Stefano Zanini, Stuart O‚Grady (Gan), George Hincapie (US Postal) and Erik Zabel (Telekom).