20/6/00: Salvatore Commesso of Saeco won the 18th stage of the Tour de France today, edging out Alexandre Vinokourov of Telekom in a sprint for the line.

Salvatore Commesso

The 25-year-old Italian crossed the line in 6hr 8min 15sec after seeing off all-comers in this the longest stage of the entire event.

The only consolation for the survivors was that they entered the day's ride with the gruelling mountain stages behind them.

Defending champion Lance Armstrong retained the leader's yellow jersey after coming some 15min adrift with the peloton.

Armstrong has been in the saddle for a total of 82hr 01min 18sec, 5min 37sec ahead of Germany's 1997 champion Jan Ullrich of Telekom.

Spain's Joseba Beloki of Festina is third, 6min 38sec adrift.

Kazakhstan's Vinokourov and Commesso were 2min ahead of the pack over the final 6km with Jean-Cyril Robin of Bonjour, Credit Agricole's Jens Voigt and Jacky Durand of Lotto chasing.

Commesso, a former Italian national champion who also won the 13th stage of the Tour last year, won by just a handful of centimetres in a mad dash for the finish after both he and Vinokourov stopped on the final sharp turn to avoid leading the final sprint.

In the end the Italian's late surge from second brought him the day's honours as large crowds rushed to the roadside to see the riders home after the race crossed from Switzerland into Germany in the most picturesque of settings.

"Let's hope I can provide more of the same," laughed the Naples-born former junior European champion breathlessly afterwards.

Both Commesso and Vinokourov were in it for the long haul as they headed up a 242.5km escape just 4km out of Lausanne.

Commesso's win at Albi last year followed a similarly long escape.

The two front-runners started their final push some 40km out to leave Voigt, Durand and Robin in their slipstream.

Commesso's win followed one of the longest escapes in Tour history.

The record remains with Frenchman Albert Bourlon, who in 1947 held onto the lead for 253km from Carcassonne to Luchon.

Commesso, nicknamed Toto, is, at 1m65, one of the smallest riders on the Tour and his main task has been to work for sprinter Mario Cipollini.

"The others told me to stand up while I was pedalling to protect them from the wind," he laughed.

Commesso, who only turned professional two years ago, left southern Italy aged 12 to pursue his dream of becoming a cyclist.

Lance Armstrong

"I went to stay with my uncle near Como in Lombardy as Naples has no cycling tradition," he explained recently.

His parents moved north four years later and set up a butchers shop in order to help finance his burgeoning career.

After he began to establish himself he spent some of his wages from last year on a holiday in the Canary Islands for his parents to thank them for their support.

Heading the points total is Germany's Erik Zabel, going for a record fifth green jersey. Zabel has 256 points to main challenger Robbie McEwen's 137.

Santiago Botero of Colombia and Kelme still leads Spain's Javier Ochoa in the King of the Mountains category with five-times category winner Richard Virenque of France third.

Kelme lead Banesto in the team placings while Francisco Mancebo of Spain and Banesto leads Guido Trentin of Italy in the young riders' category.

Triple stage winner Erik Dekker of the Netherlands and Rabobank leads the aggressivity rankings ahead of Colombia's Santiago Botero of Kelme.

Leonardo Piepoli of Banesto, who finished 14th overall in 1998, did not start the stage, leaving 129 competitors - 12 less than arrived on the Champs Elysees on the final day last year. -AFP