July 21/99 12:11 pm - Extebarria Takes Stage 16

Posted by Editor on 07/21/99
 

Extebarria Wins Second Stage

Armstrong and his team had another successful day of defending the yellow jersey in the mountains, today. The 192 kilometre stage from Lannemezan to Pau started out slowly - other than a sprint for climbing points, there was no action on the first major climb of the day (the Col d'Aspin). On the Hors Category (Beyond Category) Col du Tourmalet, the race finally opened up, with stage winners Pavel Tonkov and David Etxebarria opening up a gap first, and then being joined by Elli. Armstrong was well positioned in a chase group of 14 containing his team mate Kevin Livingston, and his main foes Alex Zulle, Richard Virenque and Escartin. Over the top of the Tourmalet, the lead on Armstrong's group was 55 seconds. As the chasers descending, stragglers began to join the group, bringing the numbers up to approximately 60 riders. Among those catching back on was Abraham Olano. On the next climb - the Col du Soulor - the chasers again began to split up, with multiple attacks taking place. The most serious attack was by Escartin, to which Armstrong, Zulle and Belli immediately reacted. The foursome very quickly took 40 seconds on the remainder of the peleton (containing, among others, Virenque). As Armstrong went over the summit of Soulor, his group (now up to 7 riders) was just over 3 minutes down on the leaders - the closest on GC over 19 minutes back. Once again, chasers crept back up to the yellow jersey, bringing the numbers up to 13 at the base of the Col d'Aubisque. This group began to close on the leaders, and shed riders again... Escartin accelerated the pace in the chase, but could not shake Armstrong or Zulle. Over the top of the Aubisque this group of 9 was 1:10 down on the three leaders, and the gap was shrinking. Finally, with about 25 kilometres to go in the stage, the 3 leaders sat up and waited for the chasers. This reformed group of 12 had nearly three and a half minutes on the peleton, who were chasing in earnest. Armstrong's work was over, but there was still the battle for the stage win, and attacks and counter attacks began to happen with 10 kilometres to go. A group of 6, containing Extebarria gained approximately 20 seconds on the others with 4 kilometres to go and were the ones to battle it out for the stage win. Extebarria received a perfect leadout from his team mate Serrano to take his second stage victory of the Tour. The peleton cruised in 2:12 down on Extebarria, 1:52 on Armstrong's group.

Stage 16 - Lannemezan to Pau 192 km