FDJeux.com’s Carlos Da Cruz won a sprint finish to take the first stage of a star-studded Circuit de la Sarthe in Fontenay le Comte, France, on Tuesday.

In a race featuring American four-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and Germany's Jan Ullrich, Da Cruz stole the limelight after 188km ride from Nantes, taking the leader's jersey in the process.

The 28-year-old Frenchman crossed the line in 5:10:13, beating Russian Alexei Sivakov in a sprint to the line.

The rest of the main peloton arrived almost six minutes later, with Ullrich placing 22nd at 5:52, and Armstrong finishing about two meters back.

He's back in the saddle again...

Photo: AFP

Ullrich, winner of the 1997 Tour de France, celebrated his return to official competition, even though some degree of uncertainty still surrounds the finances of his Coast team.

Ullrich appeared relaxed and took time for a chat with Armstrong during the race. This being his first race in more than a year, Ullrich described the event as a training ride and he admitted to having "sore legs" after the 188km stage.

Ullrich, however, was beaming at a post-race press conference after completing his first race stage since competing in the Tour of Qatar last year.

My knee was fine and I was satisfied to have finished among the front group," said Ullrich after finishing."My legs were feeling the pain a bit near the end but that's normal. I just wanted to finish as quickly as possible."

Following two knee operations last year Ullrich tested positive in July for amphetamines which he said he took at a nightclub during his recovery period. The resulting six-month ban expired on March 23.

Ullrich said he was happy to be back among familiar faces.

"I had a warm welcome on the start line. I even had time for a chat with Lance Armstrong about my future baby," added Ullrich, whose girlfriend Gaby is expecting their first child.

Ullrich was less forthcoming however about his aims in the upcoming Tour de France, which Armstrong is aiming to win for a fifth straight time.

"Making it to the podium of the Tour is a dream, of course, but I have to take my time coming back. In 2004-2005, my ambitions will certainly be bigger," said the one-time Tour winner, who has also been runner-up four times.

Ullrich added that he would like to compete in the Tour of Switzerland and Tour of Germany before taking on the Tour de France.

As for Thursday's time trial and a highly-anticipated race against the clock with Armstrong, Ullrich - the 2001 world time trial champion ahead of Britain's David Millar - said it was a no-goer. "There will be no duel with Lance," he said. "You seen out there that Lance was racing whereas I'm keeping my racing role in this race at a minimum." That will also be the case if Ullrich's Coast team do not provide the International Cycling Union (UCI) with further financial guarantees about the payment of riders' wages.

The apparently troubled German team was only given a last-minute dispensation to ride the race and UCI officials said they are still waiting on "some details" from Coast in order for its riders to be able to complete the race.

Coast, in fact, was bailed out of trouble when Italian bicycle manufacturer Bianchi came up with a rescue package. However, Coast spokesman Marcel Wüst said it was "no longer a problem of finances, just a problem of clarification."

Vicioso takes Stage 2 at Basque
ONCE's Angel Vicioso finally won a race after having to settle for second twice in the past four days. Second at Saturday's GP Indurain and Monday's first stage, Vicioso edged Saeco's Igor Astarloa by a thumb in Tuesday's 158km second stage of the 43rd Tour of the Basque Country.

Astarloa started the sprint coming out of a right hand with 100 meters to go but wasn't strong enough to hold off Vicioso who nipped him in a photo-finish. Kelme's Alejandro Valverde was third while Tyler Hamilton (CSC) came across fifth to move into fifth overall.

"I deserve this victory because my team was strongest and I've been close so many days recently," said Vicioso. "Astarloa was strong, but he seemed to fade just at the end."

With most of the world's top sprinters cooling their guns in Belgium for Wednesday's Gent-Wevelgem, the Basque Country tour didn't have a strong team to dominate the group to set up a sprint. Telekom and Saeco did what they could to get their riders into position.

"It was a photo-finish, it's too close. I started the sprint and I thought I would be strong enough," Astarloa said. "The team worked hard and it was so close. Too bad."

A string of steep, but unrated climbs played a major hand in the final 30km of the stage. With 9km to go, Team CSC's Michael Blaudzun unleashed an attack in vain on the unrated Alto de Andrakas. With 7km to go, riders kept attacking to string out the main bunch. With 3km to go, Cofidis' Angelo Lopeboselli tried, but was quickly brought back as the peloton flew into the finale.

Early on, four riders animated the warm, sunny stage with the day's four rated climbs coming in the opening 100km. Kelme's Jordi Riera and Relax' Hector Guerra escaped coming up the Category 3 Alto de Morga with 91km to go and quickly opened a 3:20 gap on the uninterested main bunch.

Cofidis' Massimiliano Lelli and Saeco's Andrea Tonti gave chase coming off the Category 2 Alto de Sollube with 62km to go while the main bunch stayed together over the day's final obstacle.

Lelli and Tonti caught Riera and Guerra with 44km to go and the four widened the gap to two minutes, but Euskaltel's Roberto Laiseka and David Etxebarria drove hard to protect Mayo's lead. Paternina's Dario Gadeo briefly jumped off the front of the main bunch while Tonti crashed on a rather innocuous corner after it appeared his rear wheel slipped on oil with 36km to go.

The course wound over several steep, but unrated hills along the spectacular Atlantic Coast and peloton got restless and started to whittle down the lead to just 1:20 with just under 30 km to go. The final climbs took it out of the leading quartet and were caught with 14km to go.

Rabobank's Michael Boogerd was among three riders who retired from the race.

The Basque Country tour continues Wednesday with the 191-km third stage from Plentzia to Vitoria, the longest of this year's race. The stage starts at sea level but climbs over three rated climbs, including the Category 3 Alto de Zaldiaran just 11 km from the finish line in Vitoria, high on Spain's central meseta.

Tour of Basque Country: Stage 2, Legazpi to Plentzia
1. Angel Vicioso (Sp-ONCE) 158km in 4:01:45, (39.219 kph)
2. Igor Astarloa (Sp-Saeco)
3. Alejandro Valverde (Sp-Kelme)
4. Beat Zberg (Ned-Rabobank)
5. Davide Rebellin (I-Gerolsteiner)
6. Alexandre Moos (Swi-Phonak)
7. Matthias Kessler (G-Telekom)
8. Fabian Wegmann (G-Gerolsteiner)
9. Juan Carlos Dominguez (Sp-Phonak)
10. Ellis Rastelli (I-Gerolsteiner) - all same timeOverall standings after two stages
1. Angel Vicioso (Sp-ONCE) 7:21:51, (38.973 kph)
2. Igor Astarloa (Sp-Saeco)
3. Alejandro Valverde (Sp-Kelme)
4. Davide Rebellin (I-Gerolsteiner)
5. Tyler Hamilton (USA-CSC)
6. David Etxebarria (Sp-Euskaltel)
7. Iban Mayo (Sp-Euskaltel)
8. Kim Kirchen (Lux-Fassa Bortolo)
9. Santiago Perez (Sp-Phonak)
10. Antonio Colom (Sp-Relax) - all same time

Cipo' says Ghent repeat unlikely
World champion Mario Cipollini is playing down his chances of successfully defending his Ghent-Wevelgem title tomorrow, saying that he is both ill and lacking in motivation.

The flamboyant Italian, who rides for the Domina Vacanze team, pulled out of the Tour of Flanders World Cup race with around fifty kilometres to go on Sunday, when it became clear that the day would not end in a massive field sprint, a circumstance that plays to his strengths.

Now, a day before the Belgian one-day classic which he won last year, Cipollini says he's not up to the task.

"I'm just not that motivated," said the 33-year-old, who added that he was feeling the early effects of an upset stomach.

Cipollini has already pulled out of Sunday's Paris-Roubaix, the third World Cup race of the season and which is known ominously as the "Hell of the North."

His team has practically been decimated due to injury, leaving at least five riders sidelined.

Hopes of a podium place in Sunday's race will be placed on the shoulders of 22-year-old Italian Daniele Bennati, a reputed sprinter who has been hailed as one of the most exciting riders of his generation.

Rumsas looks to Giro
Although he finished third in last year's Tour de France, it's highly unlikely Raimondas Rumsas will be at the start line in Paris. His Lampre team is not among the teams invited to the Tour's centenary race and likely won't be, if early comments from Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc are any indication. Rumsas, of course, got on Leblanc's black list after police found his wife with a haul of banned doping products in the trunk of her car during the last weekend of the 2002 Tour. While his wife at in a French jail for weeks, Rumsas denied and continues to deny the drugs had anything to do with him.

"I don't like to talk about that," Rumsas told the El Correo daily. "I have nothing to hide. I passed all the controls and I had no problems. The products were not for me. To end third in the Tour is the most important thing to happen to me and I know very well what I had to do to get there."

Rumsas, racing this week at the Pais Vasco tour, said he doesn't expect things to change and instead is focusing on the Giro d'Italia, where he will share leadership duties with Francesco Casagrande.

"I know it will be complicated to get back to the Tour this year, but I hope to race in the next ones," said Rumsas, the 2001 champion at Pais Vasco. "The objective now is the Giro. I will know in the first week of the Giro whether or not I can fight for the overall."

Perez signs with Cofidis
Spanish rider Luis Perez has signed with Cofidis for the remainder of the 2003 season, the team reported Monday. Perez left Team Coast the same time Alex Zülle departed the troubled German two weeks ago, but did not join Zülle on the Swiss Phonak team. Instead, Perez will join the French Cofidis lineup, in part to fill the spot left by Andrei Kivilev, who died after crashing in Paris-Nice in March.