Italian rider Ivan Basso of the CSC team won the 12th stage of the Tour de France, the first mountain stage held over 197,5km between Castelsarrasin and La Mongie on Friday.
Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, of the La Boulangere team, started his seventh day in the race leader’s yellow jersey and had to work hard to keep it on his shoulders.
The 24-year-old, who had a 9min 35sec lead over Armstrong at the start of the stage, was only one minute behind the American with less than two kilometres to ride.
Basso came over the line just ahead of Armstrong, whom he followed in the final kilometres of the 15km climb, the second of the day and the first summmit finish of the Tour.
However Armstrong will be happy with his day’s work as Jan Ullrich struggled to come over the finish line over two minutes later.
Germany’s 1997 winner and five-time runner up now has over three minutes deficit to Armstrong. — Sapa-AFP