CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE:LANCE ARMSTRONG got going yesterday. And what the American produced as he neared the top of the Col du Petit Saint-Bernard showed that there is, after all, something left in his 37-year-old tank. If there was any doubt surrounding his ability to make a fight over the five remaining stages of the race, it was instantly dispelled.

Armstrong promised not to try to overhaul his Astana team mate Alberto Contador as overall race leader but still allowed himself to dream of an eighth Tour de France victory.

The 37-year-old American, back in the saddle after three-and-a-half years in retirement, is second overall, one minute 37 seconds behind the Spaniard after the 16th stage.

Armstrong said: “I can think back to my years when I was the leader of the team and if someone even remotely considered going against the directions we would have sent him home the next day. I don’t want to be like that.”

However, Armstrong said circumstances could help him to an eighth win on the French roads.

“It’s a tough race with a lot of tough stages to go and I don’t think Alberto will make a mistake,” he said.

“But you have a time trial coming up when you can go a little closer, then the Mont Ventoux is on Saturday.

“You could paint a picture when it’s possible. But I’m not planning that, I’m not scheming that.”

A bunch of around 30 riders, including Contador and all his remaining rivals for the overall victory, were seven kilometres from the top of the second of Stage 16’s two big climbs, lying a couple of minutes behind a 14-strong leading group, when the explosion came. The fuse was lit by Andy Schleck, fourth in the general classification and the man who came closest to following Contador on his stunning ride up to Verbier on Thursday.

Wearing the white jersey of the best young rider, Schleck pressed hard and abruptly on the accelerator. Three members of the group – Contador, Bradley Wiggins and Frank Schleck, the elder of the two brothers from Luxembourg, both of them with the Saxo Bank team – immediately jumped on to his rear wheel. Two others, Andreas Kloden and Vincenzo Nibali, were slightly slower to react but within seconds had succeeded in catching up. Left behind were Armstrong, Carlos Sastre and Christian Vande Velde, the captain of Wiggins’s Garmin-Slipstream squad.

Very quickly, as the six attackers ascended the final stretch before the top of the climb, they drew away. In hardly any time at all, it seemed, the gap to those left behind had expanded to 30 seconds.

As a result Wiggins, who started the day a mere nine seconds behind Armstrong in the overall standings, was in what is called virtual second place. And no one was more acutely aware of it than Armstrong.

The seven-times winner may have been outclimbed by Contador and others in the opening Monaco time trial and the mountain-top finishes at Arcalis and Verbier, but now was the time for a reminder of how he turned himself from a barrel-chested former triathlete into the world’s most feared uphill racer.

Suddenly he was out of the saddle, spinning the pedals in that high cadence familiar from triumphs labelled with the names Hautacam, Alpe d’Huez and Plateau de Beille. Astonishingly, the years fell away as he shot up the gradient. This year’s adversaries are younger men, from a generation who never expected to see the Texan returning to contend once again for the sport’s biggest prize. For a couple of minutes as they neared the arch at the top of the Petit Saint-Bernard, perhaps they imagined they had rid themselves of his latest incarnation. But metre by metre, pedal stroke by pedal stroke, he danced back towards them until Wiggins’s temporary advantage had vanished.

Franco Pellizotti was first over both the Grand Saint-Bernard and its little brother, picking up points to consolidate his hold on the king of the mountains jersey, but the stage was won by Mikel Astarloza, the 29-year-old Basque rider who leads the Euskaltel-Euskadi team. As they entered the outskirts of Bourg Saint-Maurice at the end of a hectic 30km descent Astarloza rode away from his companions in a four-man breakaway, covering the final 2km in lonely majesty, with two Frenchmen, Sandy Casar and Pierrick Fedrigo, in second and third places, followed in fourth by Ireland’s Nicolas Roche.

The yellow jersey and his rivals finished 59 seconds down.

Roche fourth

IRISH RIDER Nicolas Roche took fourth place on yesterday’s stage and won the day’s prize for best young rider.

He bridged up to the large breakaway group on the first of the day’s two big climbs and while King of the Mountains leader Marco Pellizotti, Jurgen Van den Broeck, Amael Moinard and Mikel Astarloza pushed on ahead on the second climb, Roche, Pierrick Fedrigo, Sandy Casar and Stéphane Goubert closed up towards the bottom of the descent.

They made the junction with a kilometre and a half remaining. Astarloza attacked just before they joined up. Roche appeared to miss-time his sprint and while he passed Casar and Fedrigo, it was just after the line. He therefore had to be satisfied with fourth.

Roche is now 30th overall. He is sixth in the points classification and seventh in the best young rider competition.

Guardian Service