TOUR DE FRANCE : Indurain Makes First Move, Field Buckles

LIEGE, Belgium — Miguel Indurain of Spain has won every Tour de France since 1991 with a sound, conservative strategy of staying near the front until the individual time trials and mountain stages.

But Saturday, the world’s best tour cyclist showed uncharacteristic daring during a 126-mile stage from Charleroi to Liege, serving as a prelude to today’s rolling, 33.5-mile time trial in the Ardennes.

As a result, Indurain is now second overall after stunning his top competitors with a surprise attack, leaving him in excellent position to become the first rider to win the Tour five consecutive times.

Instead of starting even with Indurain today, Eugeni Berzin of Russia and Tony Rominger of Switzerland are in a hole that could prove too difficult to overcome.

It happened when Saturday’s stage winner, Johan Bruyneel of Belgium, attacked on the last major climb 13.6 miles from the finish, and Indurain went with him. The challengers were expecting the defending champion to conserve his energy for today’s time trial, a stage that features individual racing against the clock.

But Indurain, who let Bruyneel win the stage in his country, arrived in Leige with a 42-second lead over Berzin, 91 seconds ahead of Rominger.

“He was incredible, it was like riding behind a motorbike,” said Bruyneel, who has a 31-second lead over Indurain in the overall standings. “He will be real tough to beat in the time trial. I saw it from up close.”