PASCAL Lino wiped away French humiliation yesterday in the Tour de

France with a superb display of attacking flair to win the fourteenth

stage at Perpignan.

Since the Tour started 15 days ago, no Frenchman had won a stage. Fans

and the media were baying for blood, fearing a repeat of the 1926 race

which produced no domestic winners.

''I wanted to stop the critics who were saying we were too well-paid

and that we didn't attack enough,'' Lino said after his triumph in the

224-km stage from Montpellier.

Lino shared in a break of almost 200km with four other riders who

gained more than a quarter of an hour on the pack. But he had the

strength for another attack with just under 15km left and only Italian

Giancarlo Perini was able to follow.

The Frenchman, who was fifth in last year's Tour after having worn the

leader's yellow jersey for 10 days, just held on in the sprint to beat

Perini by the width of a tyre, clocking 5hr 28min. 51sec.

The three others in the breakaway, Belgian Johan Bruyneel and Italians

Mario Chiesa and Gianni Faresin, followed 13 seconds later, with the

peloton more than 16 minutes down.

Spain's Miguel Indurain retained the yellow jersey with a lead of

3min. 23sec. over Colombian Alvaro Mejia before the race moves on for

three days in the Pyrenees.

The only big change in the overall standings favoured Bruyneel, who

jumped up from twenty-sixth to eighth.

Lino and Perini, eighth in last year's Tour, had shown little this

year after a disastrous showing in the Alps.

Their breakaway came after Swiss Tony Rominger and Italian Claudio

Chiappucci blew the field apart on the Mont St Clair climb just outside

the port of Sete.

The climb is only 1.6km long but goes from sea-level to an altitude of

190 metres at an average gradient of 11.3%, the steepest of the entire

Tour. Only a few riders could keep in touch with Rominger and

Chiappucci, and five of them got away together on the downhill and kept

moving steadily away from the pack.

With none of them in a threatening position in the standings,

Indurain's Banesto team decided it was not worth chasing too hard to

avoid exhaustion before the mountains.

Today's fifteenth stage takes the race about 140 miles to Andorra over

three first-category and four second-category climbs in one of the

toughest sections of the Tour. Results:

Fourteenth stage -- 1, Pascal Lino (France) Festina 5hr 28min. 51sec.;

2, Giancarlo Perini (Italy) ZG Mobili same time; 3, Johan Bruyneel

(Belgium) ONCE 13sec. behind; 4, Mario Chiesa (Italy) Carrera; 5, Gianni

Faresin (Italy) ZG Mobili all same time; 6, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov

(Uzbekistan) Lampre 16min. 19sec.; 7, Laurent Jalabert (France) ONCE; 8,

Christophe Capelle (France) GAN; 9, Francois Simon (France) Castorama;

10, Giovanni Fidanza (Italy) Gatorade; 11, Max Sciandri (Italy)

Motorola; 12, Frederic Moncassin (France) Wordperfect; 13, Franck Pineau

(France) Chazal; 14, Stefano Colage (Italy) ZG Mobili; 15, Johan Museeuw

(Belgium) GB MG; 16, Laurent Pillon (France) GB MG; 17, Mario Kummer

(Germany) Telekom; 18, Jens Heppner (Germany) Telekom; 19, Jacky Durand

(France) Castorama; 20, Peter de Clercq (Belgium) Lotto all same time.

Other stage placings -- 44, S Roche (Ireland) Carrera 16-19 behind;

79, R Millar (GB) TVM; 92, S Yates (GB) Motorola both same time.

Overall standings after 14 stages: 1, Miguel Indurain (Spain) Banesto

64hr 27min. 59sec.; 2, Alvaro Mejia (Colombia) Motorola 3min. 23sec.

behind; 3, Zenon Jaskula (Poland) GB MG 4-45; 4, Tony Rominger

(Switzerland) Clas 5-44; 5, Bjarne Riis (Denmark) Ariostea 10-26; 6,

Andy Hampsten (USA) Motorola 11-02; 7, Claudio Chiappucci (Italy)

Carrera 14-09; 8, Johan Bruyneel (Belgium) ONCE 14-30; 9, Vladimir

Poulnikov (Ukraine) Carrera

14-35; 10, Eric Breukink (Netherlands) ONCE 15-08; 11, Pedro Delgado

(Spain) Banesto 15-46; 12, Oliviero Rincon (Colombia) Amaya 21-31; 13,

Antonio Martin (Spain) Amaya 22-21; 14, Gianni Faresin (Italy) ZG Mobili

23-10; 15, Gianni Bugno (Italy) Gatorade 23-46; 16, Jean-Philippe Dojwa

(France) Festina 23-54; 17, Roberto Conti (Italy) Ariostea 24-02; 18,

Alex Zuelle (Switzerland) ONCE 24-14; 19, Alberto Elli (Italy) Ariostea

25-14; 20, Federico Echave (Spain) Clas 25-45.

Other overall standings -- 21 Roche

25-50 behind; 34, Millar 34-32; 66, Yates 57-20.

Mountains leaders -- 1, Rominger 191pts; 2, Indurain 136; 3, Mejia

117.

Points leaders -- 1, Abdoujaparov 228pts; 2, Jalabert 186; 3, Ludwig

177.