Pereiro goes from second best to first

Spaniard Oscar Pereiro avenged his bitter disappointment in the previous stage when he won the 180.5-km 16th stage of the Tour de France between Mourenx and Pau yesterday.

Beaten on the line by American George Hincapie on Sunday, the Phonak rider belonged to a group of four riders who joined forces in the long descent from the last big climbs in the Pyrenees.

This time, there was no denying a well-deserved victory for a Spanish climber who had been by far the most active rider all day, especially on the last two big climbs of this Tour, Marie Blanque and Aubisque.

Pereiro, winner of the Classic of the Alps last year, outsprinted compatriot Xabier Zandio and Italian Eddy Mazzoleni at the finish to give his team their first win in this Tour after two second places.

Race leader Lance Armstrong, bidding for an unprecedented seventh Tour victory, came home safely in the bunch.

"I attacked every day, on every climb and this is an important day for me," Pereiro said.

"George is a great friend but he had stayed behind all day on Sunday. It was still a great honour to finish second behind such a great rider," he added.

Australian Cadel Evans, in the lead since the first breakaway of the day, finished fourth and jumped to seventh in the provisional overall standings, 9:29 behind Armstrong.

The Texan, taunted but not seriously worried all day, retained his yellow jersey with a 2:46 lead over Italian Ivan Basso, with Dane Michael Rasmussen, 3:09 behind.

Today will be the longest day on the Tour with a 239.5 km flat stage from Pau to Revel. At the end of the stage, Armstrong should receive his 79th yellow jersey, equalling five-times Tour winner Bernard Hinault, the last Frenchman to have won the Tour, 20 years ago.

Kazakh rider Andrey Kas-hechkin was punched in the face by a spectator as he was tackling the Marie Blanque climb yesterday.

The Kazakh had just launched an attack with compatriot Alexander Vinokourov and American Levi Leipheimer and was riding on the left of the road when a spectator punched him.

His nose covered in blood, he rode back towards the spot where the spectator was standing, apparently to avenge the blow but gave up and waited for the assistance of his team car.