CYCLING: From just behind the finish line here, a cable car transports tourists effortlessly and smoothly 3,000 feet up to the top of the neighbouring summit of Pic du Midi.

Almost as swiftly and seamlessly, Lance Armstrong and his team-mates took control of the race yesterday, as indeed they had to if questions were not to be asked about the triple Tour-winner's form. For the fourth time in as many Tours, the first mountain stage ended with the Texan in the yellow jersey.

For once, it was not a solo effort. Armstrong owed much to his Spanish team-mate Roberto Heras, the curly-haired, bird-like little climber he hired at vast expense at the end of 2000. Last year Heras fell off in the team time-trial and did not perform, but yesterday he made the running after the man who started the day in yellow, Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, began to feel the pace as the gradient stiffened three miles from the end.

Heras accelerated so hard that the opposition simply melted, just like the topmost winter snowdrifts did in yesterday's sun. Only the rider who has finished third to Armstrong in the last two Tours, the impassive Basque Joseba Beloki, could cling on - but when the time came for the American to dislodge him in the final kilometre, Armstrong seemed to have no great difficulty.

So it was that Armstrong duly took the 13th stage win of his career. It is only a footnote, but that is now more than Miguel Indurain managed.

When the results sheets were handed to him afterwards, Armstrong stared at them intently. He would have liked what he saw. Only Beloki remains within reach, just one minute 12 seconds behind, while Galdeano's loss of 1.54 in three miles was enough to suggest that he has shot his bolt. Monday's time-trial winner Santiago Botero faded as well, losing 2.24.

The Basque Gonzalez de Galdeano, however, is still talking up his chances and those of his ONCE team, who now have four men in the top seven overall.

"Armstrong is not the same as other years," he insisted. "If he could have attacked he would have, because he always attacks. He's more accessible this year than in previous years." We shall see.

Galdeano remains at the eye of a minor storm over his use of the ventolin inhaler, a medicine which contains the lung-opener salbutamol. His level is massively high, but as far as the governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, is concerned, he has a prescription for his asthma and that is that. The World Anti-Doping Agency thinks differently, however.

Yesterday the chairman of the agency's European branch, Dr Alain Garnier, said that in his view so much salbutamol was found in Galdeano's urine in one recent Tour test that it could not be justified on medical grounds.

Galdeano was found to have a level of 1,360 nanogrammes per millilitre, and Garnier's view was that "above 1,000 nanogrammes, salbutamol is considered an anabolic agent and its use to this extent cannot be medically explained."

Be that as it may, on these punishing roads in the "circle of death" there are constant reminders of Tour history. "Forge Christophe" proclaimed a banner beside a stone barn, once the smithy of the village of Sainte-Marie de Campan, at the foot of yesterday's eight-mile climb to the finish. A plaque on the wall commemorates the legendary Tour episode of 1913 when the so-called Old Gaul, Eugene Christophe, spent four hours repairing his broken forks in the forge after running eight miles down the mountain.

Laurent Jalabert's day was, in the best tradition of long labours, in vain. On the offensive from the start, he rode alone over the Tour's first mountain, the Col d'Aubisque, where shaggy ponies grazed in high meadows amid crystal streams.

After the descent through the great rock circus of the Col du Soulor and the high hayfields, "Jaja" had reason to hope for the stage win until Heras took control and he was mercilessly overtaken two miles from the line. His reward for 75 miles of effort was second place in the King of the Mountains standings and the day's "offensiveness" prize.

David Millar's defence of the best young rider's white jersey ended soon after the start of the final climb. "I had nothing in my legs," he said. "It was just one of those days."

The Scot dropped from seventh to 27th overall and is now 9.28 behind Armstrong. Assuming that he recovers, he will be aiming for stage wins now that the white jersey has gone west.

Today, however, may not be the day, as the stage profile resembles the Needles. All eyes will be on Armstrong as he looks to consolidate his lead.