Defending champion Armstrong takes yellow jersey from Virenque

LANCE ARMSTRONG took the overall lead in the Tour de France yesterday, though the American four-time winner was eclipsed by the climbing talents of little Iban Mayo.

Armstrong had to counter a series of attacks on the way up the final climb and 25-year-old Mayo showed he could ruffle the Texan after sprinting past him a third of the way up the second 'hors categorie' climb of the day to cross the summit finish line almost two minutes ahead of him.

Armstrong, who two years ago destroyed both Jan Ullrich and Joseba Beloki after a thrilling climb to the legendary Tour summit, seemed happy just to keep tabs on his main rival, 29-year-old Beloki.

Armstrong, however, sprinted to beat Beloki to the line, finishing in third at 2:13 after Alexandre Vinokourov had finished in second place at 1:44 behind Mayo.

Beloki gave up the chase to the finish and came in sixth place behind fourth-placed Spaniard Francisco Mancebo and another Basque Haimar Zubeldia, in fifth.

A former team-mate of Armstrong's Tyler Hamilton, who once again rode through the pain barrier with a broken collarbone and had been one of the riders to attack Armstrong on the way up the fifth of the day's climbs, came seventh ahead of Italian Ivan Basso.

Armstrong holds a 40-second lead over Beloki with Basque sensation Mayo third overall at 1:10.

"That was a really difficult stage," admitted Armstrong smiling. "Right from the start, it was like, boom.

"I didn't worry too much about Mayo as he was far enough down in the overall standings. Overall, it's a great day for me. It's not too important to have the (yellow) jersey it's more important for me to know that my legs feel okay.

"It's also important to know that I put some distance between myself and Jan Ullrich. That's good news, although it's early in the race yet."

Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner, is eighth overall at 2:10.

Mayo, a 25-year-old Basque, escaped and left a group being headed by Armstrong and Beloki a third of the way up the final 14.1km climb.

Mayo, who beat Armstrong in the prologue and on an alpine stage of the recent Dauphine Libere race, sprinted up the 21-hairpin bend climb and crossed the line after 5hr 57min 30sec of tough climbing to claim his first Tour stage win on his second participation.

"It's a dream come true for me," said Mayo.

"It doesn't matter that I wasted some time going towards the finish line. I wanted to savour every minute of it. This might not happen again."

Armstrong took the race leader's jersey from Frenchman Richard Virenque, who was accompanied all the way up the gruelling climb to the summit by Australian team-mate Michael Rogers.

Both came in with a nine-minute deficit, however Virenque said that losing the yellow was no problem.

"It was going fast up the Alpe (d'Huez), and I felt right away that I wasn't going to be able to keep pace," said 33-year-old Virenque, who won Saturday's first alpine stage to take the yellow and polka dot jerseys.

"I tried to protect the yellow jersey for the first few kilometres but I soon realised it was mission impossible.

"I just went up at my own rhythm I have to think about the days ahead."