July 19, 2005 – Phonak’s Oscar Pereiro has taken stage 16 today, a 180.5 km ride to Pau, over Iles Balears’ Xabier Zandio. Lotto’s Cadel Evans had the ride of his life today, attacking up the mountains and soloing for the better part of the day. He was joined by Zandio, Pereiro and Lampre’s Eddy Mazzoleni in the latter stages of the race.

Perhaps fuelled by the tragedy that struck his Australian comptratiots (see A Sad Day For Cycling) Evans drove the break as hard as he could, knowing he would crack the top-10 if he stayed away. At the finish, he led almost to the line as the three others were content to sit on his wheel before starting their sprint. With the ride, Evans jumps into seventh place. Discovery’s Lance Armstrong still leads and is looking smooth as ever.

Results:

1 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 4.38.40
2 Xabier Zandio (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d’Epargne
3 Eddy Mazzoleni (Ita) Lampre-Caffita
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto
5 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française Des Jeux 2.25
6 Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
7 Jörg Ludewig (Ger) Domina Vacanze
8 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Fassa Bortolo
9 Ludovic Turpin (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance
10 Cédric Vasseur (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone

G.C

1 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 66.52.03
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 2.46
3 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 3.09
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team 5.58
5 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d’Epargne 6.31
6 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner 7.35
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 9.29
8 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 9.33
9 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 9.38
10 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 11.4