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He knows what it takes and already comparisons are being drawn between Ullrich and Indurain

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He knows what it takes, and already comparisons are being drawn between Ullrich and Indurain.Neither likes fuss and crowds. Yet they create them as soon as they emerge from a hotel door. He switched to a different bike, but finished almost 10 minutes behind Olano.For Philippe Gaumont, the last of the 139 riders in the overall standings, there was a slice of glory yesterday when he finished third fastest, 1:12 behind Olano.With the Paris finale due today, Ullrich is 150km from being the first German to win the Tour, and in the eyes of experts, including the five- times winner Miguel Indurain, he is going to be regular visitor to the podium."He is sure to win a Tour, perhaps several," said the gentle Spaniard last year. After a pain-killing tablet upset his stomach and nearly put him out of the race, his troubles continued yesterday.After changing his rear wheel because of a puncture, his chain jammed as he tried to get going again Angrily he threw the specialised bike onto the verge. Jan Ullrich lost the final time trial of the Tour de France yesterday but boosted his overall advantage to more than nine minutes over his arch- rival Richard Virenque. Abraham Olano, silver medallist in the Atlanta Olympics time trial, snatched Spain's first victory of this Tour, covering the 63 kilometres through the Marne valley in 1hr 15min 57sec. He was 45sec too fast for the German in the yellow jersey, but Ullrich was content just to extend his overnight lead of 6:22 at the Disneyland venue.Bjarne Riis, last year's winner, continued a nightmare final week. I believe if I'd got it right there I would have gone under 10.1." Hopefully the new kid will get it right when he comes off his blocks in Athens "Yes," he mused, "hopefully...We shall find out.".

In Lausanne I pulled in the rest of the field in the last 50 metres but they'd already got away. Jackson has been helping to iron out what Mackie considers to be a less than smooth starting thrust."It's my first 30 metres," Mackie said. "I'm not getting my legs turning over quick enough when I come out of the blocks. Since his breakthrough last year, though, the former roof-tiler has joined the stable of athletes managed by Nuff Respect, the company run by Christie and Colin Jackson And he has made good use of the pedigree grooming service. Now, Christie has his hopes pinned on Mackie.Mackie's training base remains the Pitreavie track where he toils under the supervision of Macdonald, an international fly-fisherman whose daughter, Linsey, became Britain's youngest ever Olympic track and field medallist when she ran in the third-placed 4 x 400m team in Moscow 17 years ago.

Linford has definitely been the inspiration." Until last autumn, and an overdue domestic redecoration, a poster of Christie could be found pinned to Mackie's bedroom wall. His coach, John Macdonald, recalled: "Ian started to take his running seriously after he got Linford's autograph. Christie's fastest at 22 was 10.50; Wells, at the same age, had yet to break 11 seconds.Mackie's hankering for life in the fast lane can be traced back to the night, in 1991, that he queued for Christie's autograph outside Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh. If you run well you'll run fast times and break personal bests." Mackie's 100m best, 10.17sec, which he clocked ahead of Christie in Sheffield last August and equalled in Lausanne three weeks ago, confirms that he is already ahead in the generation game. I do have a target time that I realistically feel I might run this summer but I never think about times when I go into a race. It would be by happy coincidence too, rather than by grand design, if Mackie were to claim the Scottish record Wells established in the Moscow Games in 1980."It's not something I can say I think about," he said "Is it 10.10? Oh, 10.11 That's extremely good It'll be hard to beat.

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