Texan leaves rivals trailing in his wake

ANY DOUBTS over whether Lance Armstrong could win a fourth successive Tour de France were surely left behind for good in the steep hills of the Pyrenees yesterday.

The Texan attacked on the highest category climb to leave 10 riders, including Spaniards Joseba Beloki and Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano his nearest challengers for the yellow jersey trailing in his wake.

By the time he reached the finish in Plateau de Beille seven kilometres later to clinch his second successive stage win, he was over a minute clear of US Postal Service team-mate Roberto Heras and Beloki.

Even though the finish in Paris is still nine days away, Armstrong is two minutes 28 seconds ahead of Beloki in the overall standings and it seems unlikely that any other rider will wear yellow before the procession down the Champs Elysees.

With the Alps still to come, Armstrong will have yet more opportunities to impose his formidable climbing talent on those around him.

As the 11-strong leading group reeled in long-time stage leader Laurent Jalabert, it was thought that Armstrong might just sit in their midst and consolidate his lead.

But with Beloki and Galdeano third overall among the pack, Armstrong decided now was the time to pummel his rivals into submission.

While Beloki and Heras recovered enough to form their own breakaway, neither looked like being equipped to catch Armstrong.

And for Beloki, the same story looks likely for the remainder of the race, although he is not ready to admit that just yet.

''Second place in the Tour would be an improvement, but there is still a long way to go and the Alps are worth double,'' he said.

''Lance has shown that he is strong, but we have also improved. It has been a difficult stage, but I am fine. Yesterday I did a good stage, although today I didn't feel as good.''

Britain's David Millar felt even worse as he finished more than 40 minutes behind Armstrong, to drop from 27th to 74th overall.

The stage followed a similar pattern to yesterday with Jalabert again delighting the home crowd by breaking away on the first of the climbs before being caught in the final stages.

In tandem with Laurent Dufaux and Isidro Nozal, the Frenchman extended his lead over the peloton of Armstrong to more than five minutes at one point.

Although he failed to hang on, he was rewarded by retaining possession of the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey that he won last year.

Jalabert was at the head of the field from the Col de Mente just after 50 kilometres until being swept up with just nine kilometres remaining.

Soon after, Armstrong attacked on the 16km highest-category climb and the rest was history - and so it seems is the final destination of the yellow jersey.