Stage 16

The road

At the start

Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin, Peyresourde

Pierrick Fédrigo won in Pau for the second time in three years and the standings came out of the rest day untouched: Wiggins, Froome at 2:05, Nibali at 2:23, Evans at 3:19. Today is the old Tour — four passes in one afternoon, a linking rarely seen since before the war. There is no summit finish, which is exactly why the organisers believe it will be raced from the bottom of the Aubisque.

How it was won

1. 1142 km to go

   Thirty-eight men over the Aubisque

   The Aubisque, the Tourmalet, the Aspin and the Peyresourde, and a breakaway thirty-eight riders strong goes up the first of them. Sky are content to let all of it go; nobody in the move threatens the yellow jersey.

2. 276 km to go

   Voeckler and Feillu clear on the Tourmalet

   Two Frenchmen come over the Souvenir Jacques Goddet in front and dive off it together. A seven-man chase forms behind — Martin, Hincapie, Ten Dam, Voigt, Kiryienka, Sørensen and Vinokourov — and Hincapie crashes on the first hairpins and has to ride back up to them. The maillot jaune group crests 10:10 down.

3. 346 km to go

   Basso lifts it, and Evans cracks

   Liquigas take over the front of the peloton, Ivan Basso winding the tempo up with Nibali on his wheel, and the defending champion of the Tour de France comes off the back. Cadel Evans loses nearly a minute to the Aspin summit with only Moinard for company, and claws it back on the descent — just in time for the Peyresourde.

4. 422 km to go

   Voeckler drops Feillu

   Six and a half kilometres from the Peyresourde summit, with Sørensen and Vinokourov closing, Voeckler stops sharing and rides away from his last companion.

5. 515 km to go

   Nibali attacks; the British answer

   Voeckler goes over the Peyresourde alone, through a wall of Basque flags, having taken maximum points on every climb of the day. Behind him the yellow jersey group has shrunk to a handful and Vincenzo Nibali finally makes his move — twice. The first time Froome tows Wiggins back to him; the second time Wiggins leads the chase himself, and the top three in the Tour de France cross the summit together with Evans nowhere in sight.

6. 6At the line

   Voeckler by 1:40, and the polka dots

   A fifteen-kilometre plunge into Bagnères-de-Luchon and a Frenchman with all the time in the world to enjoy it — his second stage of this Tour and the mountains jersey with it. Ten of the thirty-eight escapees beat Wiggins, Froome and Nibali home; everyone else on general classification loses more time to those three.

The result