Pantani turns up the heat in the rain to take over yellow

This Tour was criticised for being too easy, but it is now in the pocket of the pint-sized climber Marco Pantani, who is set to become the first Italian to win the race for 33 years after his full-frontal assault in the Alps on Jan Ullrich left the German in a state of shock nine minutes behind.

Pantani won the Tour of Italy back in June, and is on the verge of becoming the first man to win both Giro and Tour in the same year since Miguel Indurain in 1993. Yesterday was his sixth mountain-stage win in three Tours, and far and away the most significant. Rarely has the Tour been turned around in one day by one man in such decisive style.

Pantani put in a characteristic lone attack on the highest mountain of the race, the 8,500ft Col du Galibier, tackled in bone-chilling rain and thick mist. Ullrich, who had worn the yellow jersey since the race entered the Pyrenees six days ago, was unable to hold the pace set by the little scalatore with the goatee beard and golden earring.

By the scree-sloped moonscape at the summit of the Alpine giant, he was already halfway to relieving Ullrich of his yellow jersey. For a man known as The Pirate, he showed a typical caution in stopping just over the top to pull on a plastic rain jacket to offer some protection against the biting cold.

This was a wise move probably prompted by a minor spill earlier in the stage. The other front runners opted to don their rain jackets on the move leaving no hands free for the brakes while careering downhill at 50mph on the sodden roads.

The American Bobby Julich, who rode bravely to conserve his second place overall yesterday, ended up having a close encounter with a camper van when he ran out of road while engaged in just such a manoeuvre.

Ullrich was unlucky to puncture at the foot of the descent leading to the final five-mile pull up to this ski resort - a Tour stage finish for the first time - but by this point he was already five minutes behind, the overnight three-minute advantage which he had enjoyed over the Italian a distant memory.

His day was summed up in a single gesture. At the foot of the ascent he took off the long-sleeved yellow jersey he had worn to keep warm while coming down from the Galibier and threw it on to the road, not even bothering to hand it in to his team car. It was the act of an utterly defeated man.

Relative also-rans simply pulled past him as the gradient stiffened, and in the end he was left only with his team-mates Udo Bolts and Bjarne Riis, who were almost reduced to pushing him to the line. At the finish he was 25th in the sodden, shivering, slow-motion procession across the line, with the haunted look and puffy eyes of a man who had lived through a nightmare.

There were other notable casualties. Laurent Jalabert, who was third overall yesterday morning, and still harboured hopes of a place in the first three in Paris, is probably reflecting on the fact that he is not a man of the Tour. He lost more than 15 minutes and has dropped to 22nd overall.

Pantani now has a lead of almost four minutes on Julich, with the Spanish climber Fernando Escartin in third some 20 seconds further back.

Today, as the race crosses the Chartreuse Massif, and scales the 6,000ft Col de la Madeleine before plummeting downhill to finish in Albertville, the race remains in Pantani's favourite terrain, and few would bet against him gaining yet more time.