Lance Armstrong took the 13th stage of the Tour de France as Frenchman Thomas Voeckler held on to the leader's yellow jersey. The taxing 204.5km run from Lannemezan at the foot of the Pyrenees to the summit finish resulted in a number of big names dropping out, including Armstrong's compatriot Tyler Hamilton.
Ireland's Mark Scanlon came home in 78th position, 31 minutes and 14 seconds behind the leader.
With seven climbs in total, including two first category and the unclassified climb to the finish, the second of two Pyreanean stages was always going to do some damage. And as of now, five-time winner Armstrong has few rivals that can really threaten his bid for a record sixth yellow jersey with Jan Ullrich losing two and a half minutes.
One pre-race contender, Hamilton, abandoned after only 79km having complained of back pains since his crash in the first week of mainly flat racing in northern France and Belgium. Spaniard Iban Mayo, who rides for the Basque Euskaltel team, also came close to retiring. Mayo, who lost precious time to Armstrong on a third-stage crash, was a whisker away from quitting when he got off his bike on the tough Col d'Agnes.
The 26-year-old, who seemed to be walking around in a daze as he signalled that he no longer wanted to continue, was persuaded to get back on his bike by two officials from his team.
The Basque was given a gentle push as he struggled to turn the pedals on the 9.5km Agnes climb, the fifth ascent of the day and, at an average gradient of 8.4 percent, one of the most difficult. One of Mayo's teammates, Haimar Zubeldia, had already abandoned on a stage which also saw the retirement of Russian climber Denis Menchov. The little Baleares rider had been carrying a knee injury and pulled up on the side of the road after less than an hour's racing.
The stage was first kicked into life by an early breakaway from Jens Voigt and Sylvain Chavanel of France.
Rasmussen, who broke away from the peloton, eventually caught the leading duo just before the summit of the second climb at Portet d'Aspet and together the trio went on to build a five-minute lead on the peloton. On the descent of the Aspet climb Tom Boonen of the Quick Step team crashed, apparently when his bike frame snapped, however the Belgian was unhurt and managed to ride on.
Moments later Fabian Wegemann abandoned, while Voeckler began showing the first signs of fatigue that would plague him throughout the day.
Another pre-race contender, Liberty rider Roberto Heras, also crashed, this time on the descent of the Col de la Core, the third climb of the day however the Spaniard managed to ride on. After a relatively incident-free climb and descent of the Col de Latrape, save for Mayo beginning to show the first signs of trouble, the Col d'Agnes exacted a heavy toll on the peloton. After Chavanel was dropped by Rasmussen and Voigt, Mayo - who arrived nearly seven minutes later - began struggling early on before being coerced back on to his bike.
However by the summit, Mayo's yellow jersey chances had effectively vanished. He came over the summit over 14 minutes behind Rasmussen, and eight minutes behind Armstrong.
Armstrong, led by teammate Jose Azevedo, upped the pace early on the ascent of the Plateau de Beille, the first unclassified climb of the race which climbs 15.9km at an average gradient of 6.4 percent.
Rasmussen was soon overtaken, and as Azevedo set a furious pace, Ullrich and all the rest dropped off the back. Only Friday's stage winner, CSC's Ivan Basso, managed to follow the two US Postal riders.
Filed by Mark O'Neill-Cummins
