When he encountered problems with his flight arrangements he had to give the Scottish meeting a miss. Journalists were kept busy yesterday working out all possible connections between cycling and militaristic imag-ery following the lone stage victory by Juan Antonio Flecha. Or, as Flecha himself put it, “there have been lots of jokes about how the arrowhead needs sharpening and the bowstring tightening recently.”The Ibanesto rider’s aim was certainly true enough, though, when he shot off from a break of eight riders with 10km to go and kept his pursuers at around a bow’s length all the way to the finish.Flying along on pancake flat roads, Flecha explained he was confident of hitting the bull’s-eye in his finish target because he knew the route exceedingly well: by the most bizarre of coincidences his girlfriend, Lourdes, is working as an electronics engineer on a work exchange in the French Space Research Centre, located a bare kilometre from the finish line.”I knew exactly when I had to attack in order to maintain some kind of difference,” Flecha added. “It was like I was coming home to her.” For the second consecutive stage, the major favourites were content to let lesser-known riders take the day’s honours, all too aware that today’s 47km time trial between Gaillac and Cap’Decouverte will open up hostilities in the final battle for the yellow jersey.Followed by four Pyrenean stages, the race leader Lance Armstrong, just 21sec ahead of his closest pursuer, Alexandre Vinokourov, has been repeating mantra-like ever since the race left the Alps that “this will be the most important time trial for me since I first won the Tour in 1999″.”It’s tricky and technical, but not too tricky. I like it,” said Armstrong, who has won all bar one of the Tour’s long time trials in his five-year reign in yellow. He is receiving moral support from the most unlikely of sources – although given that stage 11 had passed under the shadow of Carcassonne’s vast medieval city walls and concluded with Flecha’s belligerent gesture, perhaps the sight of his fellow-American and Republican supporter Arnold Schwarzenegger handing Armstrong his fourth yellow jersey of the race on the finishing podium was not totally out of place.Sporting even more bodyguards than Armstrong’s usual cohort of minders at the start in Narbonne – around eight compared to the Texan’s mere two – Schwarzenegger’s black-suited back-up had previously blasted a three-metre wide obstacle and people-free trail for the American film star to swagger through, his usual toothy grin stuck firmly in place.

Presumably Arnie enjoyed himself rather more than on his other recent morale-raising visit for Americans abroad – to Iraq.Briton’s David Millar, while no longer fighting for a place in the overall standings, is highly optimistic about taking the stage itself. “I don’t know the course, but I’ve got the form to take one of the top two places,” the Scottish time trial specialist revealed. The other, he is convinced, will go to Armstrong.STAGE 11 (Narbonne to Toulouse, 153.5km, 95.4 miles): 1 J A Flecha (Sp) Ibanesto 3hr 29min 33sec; 2 B De Groot (Neth) Rabobank +4sec; 3 I Nozal (Sp) ONCE s/t; 4 I Cuesta (Sp) Cofidis +15; 5 C Da Cruz (Fr) FDJeux +23; 6 S O’Grady (Aus) Cr?t Agricole; 7 N Portal (Fr) AG2R; 8 M Rogers (Aus) Quick Step all s/t; 9 R McEwen (Aus) Lotto +42; 10 B Cooke (Aus) FDJeux s/t. Selected: 12 E Zabel (Ger) Telekom; 22 J Ullrich (Ger) Bianchi; 29 L Armstrong (US) US Postal Service; 30 A Vinokourov (Kaz) Telekom all s/t.Overall: 1 Armstrong 49:16:37; 2 Vinokourov +21; 3 I Mayo (Sp) Euskaltel +1:02; 4 F Mancebo (Sp) iBanesto +1:37; 5 T Hamilton (US) CSC +1:52; 6 Ullrich +2:10; 7 I Basso (It) Fassa Bortolo +2:25; 8 R Heras (Sp) US Postal +2:28; 9 H Zubeldia (Sp) Euskaltel +3:25; 10 D Menchov (Rus) iBanesto +3:45. Selected: 15 R Virenque (Fr) Quick Step +5:59; 19 D Millar (GB) Cofidis +7:15.Points (green jersey): 1 Cooke 156; 2 R McEwen (Aus) Lotto 148; 3 Zabel 126; 4 O’Grady 122; 5 T Hushovd (Nor) Cr?t Agricole 120.King of the Mountains (polka-dot jersey): 1 Virenque 135pts; 2 J Jaksche (Ger) ONCE 75; 3 Armstrong 74; 4 I Parra (Col) Kelme 71; 5 A Garmendia (Sp) Bianchi 62.Alasdair Fotheringham writes for Cycling Weekly. Prevailing wisdom has it that this three-year-old crop represents a lost generation, that the class of 2003 should all be in the corner wearing conical hats sporting the letter D.

Yet the bookmakers, who are not the biggest stupids when it comes to money gathering, expect a horse from the Classic ranks to prove superior in the biggest generation game of them all. And, strangely again, Alamshar, who was soundly beaten by Kris Kin at Epsom, is favourite to reverse that Blue Riband form. This can be partly attributed to Alamshar’s interim success in the Irish Derby. In addition, there is Kris Kin’s well-charted lethargy away from the track, once again demonstrated on the Newmarket gallops this week. If he raced a steamroller at home it would end in a photo finish.The shape of the market is also recognition that the racing public have a tendency to back the new young thing, particularly in the King George. The statistics, though, show that only once in the last seven seasons, when Galileo was successful two years ago, has a younger horse won.This, apparently, suggests there is great value about the champion of the greybeards this year in Nayef, a head second to Golan at Ascot 12 months ago. The five-year-old remains a potent force, judged on his victory in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at the Royal meeting, which preceded a creditable second to Falbrav in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.”He’s another year older now and is holding his form extremely well,” Marcus Tregoning, Nayef’s trainer, said yesterday.

“He’s run the best races of his life this year and you’d be hopeful he’d run another big race. He’s in great form and he’s a fantastic horse to have in the yard.”For those seeking another historical perspective, there will be interest too in whatever Godolphin choose to saddle. The Dubai team has won the King George with Lammtarra (1995), Swain (1998) and Daylami (1999) and now have Sulamani and Grandera, two more older horses, in the mix.Their challenge contains a sub-plot as Godolphin remain marooned, as they have been for two months, on 99 Group One victories since birth. The King George would be a significant occasion to bring up the three figures.”Grandera is a definite starter, but we’ll work Sulamani again this weekend and if all goes well and weather permitting, he will make it,” Frankie Dettori, Godolphin’s stable jockey, said yesterday “The King George, apart from the Derby, is the biggest race. As I’ve won it three times, it’s also one of my favourite races. If we get our 100th winner in the King George then it will be absolutely amazing.”It’s in the back of our mind that we’ve been on 99 for the last two months.