PAU, France, July 19 - Oscar Pereiro went from moral victor to genuine victor in the 16th stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday, and with the glow of triumph lighting his face, he said that all was forgiven. He will no longer speak badly of George Hincapie, at least not all the time.
"He did deceive me, he did say he would work together with me and didn't," said Pereiro, a Spaniard who rides with the Phonak team. "He rides for a great team and he's a great champion."
Pereiro was still smarting about the 15th stage on Sunday, when he finished second after Hincapie pulled away late in the race. He complained of Hincapie that "in the last three kilometers, he said he would relay me, then didn't."
Evidently, Pereiro decided to go on the offensive Tuesday, the Tour's final day in the Pyrenees. He won the stage, 180.5 kilometers (112.2 miles) from Mourenx to Pau, in 4 hours 38 minutes 40 seconds.
Lance Armstrong, the leader of the Discovery Channel team, retained his overall lead in the Tour. He finished 36th in the stage, among a group of 51 riders who finished 3:24 behind the winner. His main rivals were also part of that group, so he maintained his lead of 2:46 over Ivan Basso of Italy and the CSC team.
Armstrong easily answered attacks by Basso and Jan Ullrich of Germany, with T-Mobile, in the mountains. He cleared what was probably his last major obstacle as he rolls toward his seventh consecutive victory in the Tour, with retirement right behind.
"Today was my best day, my strongest, everything went well," Armstrong said, adding that "there was no chain on the bike," an expression riders use to describe what it feels like when everything seems easy.
"Perhaps it's because of the rest day, or maybe the fact it was the last day in the Pyrenees and I knew that if I made it through the day I was a lot closer to victory," Armstrong said.
He pedaled up two major climbs, the Marie-Blanque and the towering Aubisque. The Marie-Blanque is an ascent of 9.3 kilometers (5.8 miles), at a grade of 7.7 percent; the Aubisque climbs 16.5 kilometers (10.3 miles) at a 7 percent grade.
Now Armstrong has just five more stages to Paris, and he knows his chances are looking good. "If you avoid problems, avoid accidents, don't get some freaky illness and avoid catastrophes, then the odds are good because I'm feeling better and better every day," he said.
On the Marie-Blanque, Pereiro started chasing an 11-man group that had pulled away with an early breakaway. He caught almost all the leaders by the time he reached the top of the Aubisque.
During a 70-kilometer (43.5-mile) descent into Pau, Pereiro caught Cadel Evans of Australia, with Davitamon, who was leading the race. Pereiro then punctured a tire and had it replaced before catching Evans again.
Evans, Pereiro and two others - Xabier Zandio of Spain, with Illes Balears, and Eddy Mazzoleni of Italy, with Lampre - steamed into Pau more than two minutes ahead of any pursuit and started a sprint to the line. Pereiro won it by half a wheel.
He averaged about 24.4 miles an hour in the first Tour stage victory of his career. Zandio was second, Mazzoleni third and Evans fourth. By finishing 3:24 ahead of Armstrong, Evans was able to move to seventh over all, up from 11th. He is 9:29 behind Armstrong.
The top six in the overall standings remained the same. Behind Armstrong and Basso were Michael Rasmussen of Denmark, with Rabobank, still 3:09 behind; Ullrich, 5:58 back; Francisco Mancebo of Spain, with Illes Balears, 6:31 behind; and Levi Leipheimer of the United States, with Gerolsteiner, 7:35 behind. None of them will catch Armstrong, unless something unexpected happens.
Meanwhile, Pereiro gained enough points to move closer to Rasmussen in the competition for king of the mountains. Rasmussen has 185 points to Pereiro's 135. Pereiro, who turns 28 next month, finished 10th in last year's Tour; he is a strong climber and, as he demonstrated Tuesday, a fair sprinter.
But it was the sprint two days earlier that angered Pereiro, and the episode indirectly involved Armstrong. Pereiro lost his two-man sprint Sunday, when Hincapie pulled away after six trying climbs in the Pyrenees. During their long breakaway, first in a big group and then mano a mano, Hincapie took few turns at the front to set the pace.
"Hincapie didn't collaborate," Pereiro said, admitting that Hincapie's tactics were logical, because he was working for Armstrong, who was in the chasing group.
After Sunday's race, Hincapie said that spectators narrowed the road so severely that he could not get by Pereiro to work with him. Pereiro was unimpressed by this defense. "His victory was worth nothing ethically," Pereiro told the newspaper L'Équipe. "I think I was the moral victor."
Unlike Pereiro, Armstrong has not won a stage in this year's Tour, although that could change over the next five days. And even if it does not, he seems unstoppable.
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New York Times
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