Pereiro assumes control

CYCLING/Tour de France, Stage 16: Because the Tour lasts three weeks, there is plenty of time for hindsight, and there must have been a fair amount of soul- searching last night among the team managers and leaders who refused to assist Floyd Landis's Phonak in keeping last Saturday's massive escape within reach.

Together they permitted Oscar Pereiro to gain half an hour then, and Landis's collapse on the 17.6km climb to the finish here yesterday enabled the Spaniard to regain the yellow jersey he took in Montelimar.

Underestimating him looks now to have been an epic blunder, or at least that is how Pereiro saw it. "Phonak didn't make a mistake, because they needed other teams to help them," he said. "I think the other teams made a huge error."

Asked if Pereiro's Caisse d'Epargne team had had a plan to attack yesterday, Jose Miguel Echavarri, who has run the squad since the 1980s and won the Tour five times with Miguel Indurain under the Banesto banner, said they abided by a maxim: "If you leave the tree still, the fruit stays on the branch. If you shake it hard, it may fall."

Landis came down to earth in spectacular style. At the foot of the climb to the finish the maillot jaune was riding in a 30-strong group and looked as efficient as the day before, but he had not felt good on the earlier climbs and was bluffing. The early "shaking" was applied by Denis Menchov, winner at Pla-de-Beret last week, but Carlos Sastre's attack, from just before the banner indicating 10km to go, did the real damage.

The American's hip replacement is pending but suddenly he seemed to need new legs. He slowed to walking pace, sweat pouring down his face, which had turned almost as yellow as his jersey. He had pulled out the earphone link to his team vehicle; there was nothing to be said.

He lost time at almost a minute per kilometre - the usual rate for a non-climber against a specialist - and he slumped to 11th overall, eight minutes behind Pereiro.

"I don't have an explanation," he said, "but my chances of winning the Tour are very small."

Nothing on this scale had been seen from a contender for victory wearing the yellow jersey since Jan Ullrich's shipwreck in the rain at Les Deux Alpes in 1998.

As Landis floundered, Sastre forged ahead, with Pereiro, Cadel Evans and Andreas Kloden pulling clear of the rest, who finished in dribs and drabs. And Pereiro made sure of winning third place, which carries a potentially useful eight-second time bonus. Behind Pereiro the key men now look to be Sastre, who is second at 1min 50sec, Kloden and Evans, who are third and fifth at 2min 29sec and 2min 56sec respectively. Barring a dramatic recovery Menchov should be a busted flush at almost four minutes back, while France's fourth-placed Cyril Dessel is untested.

While the yellow jersey still hangs in the balance, Mickael Rasmussen looks destined to reclaim the mountains vest he won last year. He led over all four summits yesterday, to take what should be a decisive lead.

LEADING POSITIONS

(Stage 16: Bourg d'Oisans - La Toussuire: 182km)

1 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 5hrs 36mins 04secs, 2 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Team CSC at 1min 41secs, 3 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears at 1:54, 4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 1:56, 5 Andreas Kloden (Ger) T-Mobile at same time, 6 Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance at 2:37, 7 Pietro Caucchioli (Ita) Credit Agricole, 8 Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R-Prevoyance at same time, 9 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner at 3:24, 10 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 3:42, 11 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank, 12 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile, 13 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) T-Mobile at same time, 14 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital at 4:21, 15 Michael Boogerd (Ned) Rabobank at 6:33, 16 Jose Azevedo (Por) Discovery Channel at 7:55, 17 Marcus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner at 8:37, 18 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC at same time, 19 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) Lampre-Fondital at 9:14, 20 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears at 9:40.

General Classification (after Stage 16)

1 Oscar Pereiro 74hrs 38mins 05secs, 2 Carlos Sastre 1min 50secs, 3 Andreas Kloden 2:29, 4 Cyril Dessel 2:43, 5 Cadel Evans 2:56, 6 Denis Menchov 3:58, 7 Michael Rogers 6:47, 8 Christophe Moreau 7:03, 9 Levi Leipheimer 7:46, 10 Haimar Zubeldia 8:06, 11 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak 8:08, 12 Pietro Caucchioli 13:27, 13 Frank Schleck 13:48, 14 Michael Boogerd 13:52, 15 Marcus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner 15:04, 16 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital 17:46, 17 Axel Merckx (Bel) Phonak 18:33, 18 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) 18:57, 19 Tadej Valjavec 19:21, 20 Jose Azevedo (Por) Discovery Channel 19:46.