Mikel Astarloza was the winner of stage 16 of the Tour de France but the gut-busting ride by Lance Armstrong to stay in touch with yellow jersey wearer and Astana team mate Alberto Contador was the biggest of the day’s results.
The breakaway in the first ten kilometres of the 159km stage 16 from Martigny to Bourg-Saint-Maurice contained more than twenty riders, building a lead around two minutes. Italian Franco Pellizotti of Liquigas and Russian Vladimir Karpets of Team Katusha then jumped the breakaway, cresting the Great Saint Bernard Pass – the first of two huge climbs – 2:03 ahead of the rest of the leading pack and around five minutes ahead of the peloton.
Pellizotti and Karpets were caught by the breakaway group with 60km left to ride and the Little Saint Bernard Pass between them and the finish line. Pellizotti then kicked ahead again with Belgian Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Silence-Lotto, later joined by Frenchman Amael Moinard of Cofidis and Spaniard Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel-Euskadi, and it was this foursome which eventually contested the stage win, with Astarloza coming out in front.
Meanwhile, back in the peloton the Schleck brothers, Frank and Andy, lead an attack with yellow jersey wearer Alberto Contador joining them, with Lance Armstrong and Cadel Evans among the contenders who didn’t immediately respond.
However, in the biggest move of the day, Armstrong then took it upon himself to bridge the significant gap between the main peloton and the Contador group, bringing back memories of his seven straight Tour de France wins with an impressive riding performance.
Stage 16 results 1 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi 159km in 4.14.20 2 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 6 seconds behind 3 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 4 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Silence – Lotto 6 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne
Top 20 of general classification after stage 16 1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 67:33:15 2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 1:37 3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin – Slipstream 1:46 4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 2:17 5 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 2:26 6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 2:51 7 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 3:09 8 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 3:25 9 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 3:52 10 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin – Slipstream 3:59 11 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi 4:38 12 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 4:40 13 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia – HTC 5:05 14 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 5:26 15 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 5:40 16 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha 5:56 17 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence – Lotto 7:23 18 Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 8:23 19 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 9:14 20 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 10:00
