Vinokourov turning up the heat on Armstrong
Armstrong, who is bidding for a fifth consecutive Tour crown, came under attack from Telekom rider Alexandre Vinokourov, who started the day in third place overall at just over a minute behind, on the day’s final climb.
Vinokourov, the 29-year-old Kazakh who has won the Paris-Nice, the Tour of Switzerland and the Amstel Gold Race this year, came in sixth and was only 18 seconds away from pulling on the race leader’s jersey.
The stage was won by Saeco team leader Gilberto Simoni who held off Frenchman Richard Virenque after a sprint finish to the line to claim his first Tour de France stage win.
“It’s an absolute joy to win a stage on the Tour,” beamed Simoni, who won the Tour of Italy in June but has suffered on the Tour so far after having boldly predicted success.
“I’m pretty lucky as well because I’m not in the best of form and I even thought of abandoning yesterday.
“Thankfully my team manager talked me out of it, he told me I could still win a stage.
“It’s great, especially after being humiliated (in the Alps).”
Simoni had been part of a four-man group which broke away from a group of 17 riders after they had enjoyed a significant lead at the front for most of the stage having begun their breakaway after just four kilometres of the stage, which included a total of six Pyrenean climbs.
US Postal team leader Armstrong came in 1min 24sec behind Simoni and alongside Germany’s Jan Ullrich, who started the day in second place overall at only 15 seconds.
The 31-year-old American was made to work to keep the yellow jersey in the final few kilometres after Vinokourov’s attack had peaked at just over a minute, meaning he was the virtual race leader.
Armstrong now leads the race from Ullrich by 15 seconds with Vinokourov still in third place but thanks to his impressive efforts the Kazakh now is now only 18 seconds behind the American. Armstrong, who is facing a real challenge to his race domination, admitted it had been a hard day but remained confident.
“It was a pretty full day,” said Armstrong before admitting the past two days had given him something to chew on.
“Today I felt a lot better than yesterday where I was still suffering a bit from Friday’s disaster of a time trial.”
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