Jan rode like a true champion today and kept up with Lance and Basso until
the last km! Even the American reporters had to admit that Jan is a
champion and "he's back!" T-mobile put in a good performance as well -
Kloden and Vino stayed with Jan until about 20 km and led Lance, Basso and
Jan up the mountain - Discovery Team dropped off when T-mobile launched the
attack and Lance and Basso retaliated. I suspect the Discovery boys will
have another "talk" at the dinner table tonight with Lance and their team
manager. Lance was NOT impressed that his team provided little to no
support in today's hard stage.

The following is from the T-mobile site:

16.07.2005/ Georg Totschnig (GST) became only the second ever Austrian to
win a stage of the Tour de France today after breaking away from km 7 and
finishing alone. But the real battle lay behind. Lance Armstrong
demonstrated his dominance of this race yet again, coming in second, just
ahead of Ivan Basso (CSC) after dropping a brave and battling Jan Ullrich
just 500m back. Ullrich came in just 20" behind Armstrong, 1'16" behind
Totschnig, moving him right up to fourth place from eighth in the GC.
Armstrong strengthens his lead over Michael Rasmussen to 1'41". Basso lies
third overall at 2'46".

Despite the fact that the toughest Pyrenean stage lies ahead tomorrow, few
can doubt that Armstrong is well on his way to a seventh yellow jersey in
Paris. This year´s Tour now looks like a battle for second and third place.
Today, in the most thrilling stage yet, Armstrong was challenged, questions
were asked of him, but the six-time champion had all the answers.

T-Mobile attack
Totschnig´s group led for most of the day, before all were caught
intermittently on the last two climbs bar the eventual winner. It was the
T-Mobile attack near the base of the second climb, the hors-category Port de
Pailhéres that brought this stage to life. At first, the team took to the
front of the peloton and upped the tempo. This injection of pace strung out
the field and quickly left Armstrong completely isolated. Vino then led the
charge with a piercing attack that dropped Armstrong. Ullrich managed to
join him along with Basso and Kashechkin. Armstrong, Rasmussen and Mancebo
were left following, trying to get back.

Suddenly, Armstrong defied anyone who doubted his strength at this point by
bridging the gap alone and with apparent ease. From then on the Texan was
always very focused and in control despite further attacks that came on the
climb. These came thick and fast from Basso, but were all responded too.
Armstrong was happy to put time between himself and Rasmussen still chasing
behind. Vino began to really struggle falling back off the second group.

On the fast descent, the Armstrong/Ullrich group took it cautiously and were
caught by Mancebo, Evans, Klöden, Zubeldia and Rasmussen. The recovering
Vino caught up with this reformed group and gave the T-Mobile team the
favourable position of having three men in the group. Amazingly, Vino didn't
wait around and attacked again on the final climb. It didn't last long and
he was soon dropped. As the pace further increased, Klöden, Mancebo and the
others were left behind, leaving a trio of strongmen, Ullrich, Basso and
Armstrong to battle it out among themselves, all the time closing in on
Totschnig about four minutes ahead.

Armstrong responds
The three seemed to take it in turns pumping up the pace, though Armstrong
looked ominously comfortable and fresh at this point. Ullrich, in a
tremendous ride, stayed with the pair right up to the final 600 metres when
the day's efforts suddenly caught up with him. In the final 200 metres,
Basso had no response to Armstrong´s acceleration, but will have been
pleased with his day's performance. Up ahead, the lone Austrian, Totschnig
heroically hung on by 56" for an emotional victory.

T-Mobile sporting manager Mario Kummer said afterwards, "I was satisfied
with the team's performance today. We rode very aggressively straight from
the gun. The team impressively put our tactics into practice, which was to
isolate Armstrong. You can say, we managed to put pressure on Discovery and
him. In the finale, it was only a man-versus-man battle - and he proved to
be just a little stronger again. But he was less dominant than he had been
in the days before."

To which Andreas Klöden added, "our plan today was to show everybody we are
determined to keep on fighting. We eliminated Armstrong's team early on. On
the last ascent in the end, though, Armstrong was a little stronger. But we
will attack again." The final word has to be left to Jan Ullrich,
disappointed despite an impressive performance. "I pushed myself to the
limit. On the last kilometre, I couldn't follow Armstrong - my legs were
sore." He´ll be hoping for a different denouement tomorrow.