Lance over the hill in Tour chase

THE final mountain stage of the 2005 Tour de France passed comfortably yesterday for Lance Armstrong who, barring injury or mishap, will accept his seventh consecutive title in Paris on Sunday.

The 180.5-kilometre stage 16 from Mourenx-Pau took the peloton over the formidable Col d’Aubisque, which climbs 16.5km at an average gradient of 7%, and represented the last chance for the American’s rivals to mount a serious challenge.

However, a few quixotic charges by T-Mobile’s Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov aside, Armstrong and his Discovery team-mates exerted complete control over a timid peloton.

The Texan will head east today and then head north for the French capital, knowing the worst of the road is behind him.

He is two minutes, 46 seconds clear of the Italian Ivan Basso in second place, a lead which is unlikely to be reduced significantly in the coming days and could even be increased in Saturday’s time-trial.

Yesterday’s stage was taken by Phonak rider Oscar Pereiro of Spain who won a four-man sprint ahead of Cadel Evans, Eddy Mazzoleni and Xabier Zandio.

Pereiro described the victory as his “life’s dream” and, with the quartet finishing over three minutes ahead of the peloton, he moved up from 24th to 17th overall.

Australian Evans, who had led the breakaway up the Aubisque, also benefited to the tune of a four-place improvement to seventh in the general classification.

Evans and the rest of his compatriots rode with black armbands as a mark of respect for the Australian women’s team rider Amy Gillett who was killed on Monday in a training accident in Germany.

A poetic tribute would have been a stage win for Evans but, although he could not manage that, he could be proud of a brave day’s riding which saw him mount the Aubisque first.

The extent of Armstrong’s dominance is demonstrated by the fact that Jan Ullrich was, according to the leader, more intent on taking time out of the Dane Michael Rasmussen who is in third place as well as the King of the Mountains’ jersey.

Ullrich was supposed to be the biggest danger to the American’s pursuit of a seventh victory, so if the summit of the German’s ambitions is to just get on to the final podium, Armstrong can enjoy a gentle ride into retirement.

The Texan was even willing to contemplate the final stage when the peloton races on the Champs Elysees.

He has not won a stage yet but ruled out anything daring in Paris.

He said: “That’s a special day for everybody. Everybody in the race will be attacking and the Champs Elysees is not an easy stage so I suspect I’ll be happy to stay in the bunch and get there safely.”