This morning Jan Ullrich will give a press conference in his hotel in Pau, but as his PR man Luuc Eisenga put it - only half in jest - "there is nothing to say", because yesterday at the top of the eight miles of hairpins leading to this bleak ski-station, actions spoke louder than words.
For the first time in a mountain stage of this Tour de France, Ullrich finished ahead of Lance Armstrong, sprinting in third behind the Spanish stage-winner Roberto Laiseka, and Italy's Wladimir Belli. Unfortunately, the German champion was all of a metre ahead of the American, who was clad in the yellow jersey which he won on Saturday, and as he crossed the line Ullrich stretched his right hand towards Armstrong, who took it and shook it gently.
The handshake amounted to an admission that the battle for this Tour de France was over, that Ullrich is resigned to a fourth second place since 1996, a sequence broken by his win in 1997 and his absence from the 1999 race. "I have battled for five days on the trot with Lance, and in all that time he has never shown any weakness, and that's why I made the gesture," he said.
Armstrong, meanwhile, has continually sung the German's praises, although he has been mounting something of a PR offensive on this Tour, and on Saturday he showed professional respect for Ullrich as well, by waiting when the German made an unintentional high-speed diversion into a hayfield on the descent from the Col de Peyresourde, to make sure he had not been injured.
Over this long weekend, Ullrich has shown better form than at any time since his victory four years ago and has proved a more than worthy adversary.
On Friday he blasted up the foot of the climb to Plateau de Bonascre and on Saturday he made similar attempts to blow Armstrong away on the Peyresourde pass and on the climb to the finish at Pla d'Adet.
Yesterday, the German looked set to mount a one last offensive, sending four of his climbing domestiques Andreas Kloden, Jens Heppner, Alexandr Vinokourov and Udo Bolts up ahead over the Aspin and Tourmalet passes. This is a classic textbook tactic, in which the domestiques are in front, the leader at tacks from behind, and the workhorses then wait to tow him away.
There was just one problem: Ullrich could not complete the move by getting away from Armstrong, who looked as comfortable as anyone can when climbing up three large mountain climbs in a single day. "The plan was to attack, but there was one guy who was just too strong to be atttacked," Ullrich said afterwards. It was not until the final two kilometres to the finish here - far too late to hope to cut seriously into his five-minute deficit - that he made a serious attempt to break clear, and by this time his domestiques had long blown a gasket and were trailing behind.
As on Saturday at Pla d'Adet, and on Friday at Plateau de Bonascre, he could not get rid of Armstrong, whose attacks once he sensed Ullrich weakening on those two occasions should win him this Tour when the race enters Paris on Sunday. Yesterday, the Texan was content to ride defensively.
Ullrich and his camp are clearly frustrated by the Olympic champion's impotence. On Friday his manager Rudy Pevenage accused Armstrong of "making Jan look ridiculous"; of letting Ullrich's Telekom team make all the running before popping out on the last climb to leave their man for dead.
Others have found the Pyrenees more productive. On Saturday Laurent Jalabert cemented his status as France's new-found favourite by following up his double of stage wins with an epic 100-mile escape over five of the day's six climbs, giving best only four miles from the finish at Pla d'Adet, and taking a firm grip on the polka dot jersey of best climber. It is not a turn of events which anyone would have predicted two weeks ago in Dunkirk.
Another unexpected Frenchman, the gritty, grimacing, grizzled Francois Simon, fought heroically but vainly to hold onto the yellow jersey on Saturday, but still has every chance of finishing in the top six at the end of the week. Today is a rest day.
