Armstrong close but the French win again.

The mammoth 16th stage of the TdF ended in very similar fashion to stage 15, a French rider in a Bbox Bouygues Telecom uniform, in a breakaway crossed the line first. Pierrick Fedrigo gave France its sixth stage victory of the 2010 Tour after teammate Thomas Voeckler had saluted yesterday. Voeckler had attacked his breakaway companions and won comfortably, here is was Quick Step's Carlos Barredo attacking his breakaway - and staying away for 43 of the final 44km - heartbreakingly Barredo was caught by the very men he had left just over an hour prior with just 1km to go. That break away group contained a very aggressive Lance Armstrong and his team mate Chris Horner  - who did much of the work to catch Barredo - although the seven-time Tour champ could not quite sprint with younger legs at the finish. Fedrigo took the victory ahead of Sandy Casar with Ruben Plaza third.


The tough day in the Pyrenees; with four categorised climbs including two HC climbs, promised fireworks amongst the favourites but instead turned into an impasse after the drama of the closing 25km of stage 15. 
Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador buried the hatchet over Monday’s controversial chain-drop, but promise to fight to the death up the Col du Tourmalet on Thursday. Schleck and Contador hugged each other behind the podium presentation following the close of Tuesday’s stage and say that their friendship is intact despite the hubbub of Contador’s actions on the Port de Balès.
Schleck spoke to the media and said: “he came to apologize to me, that means a lot, That shows he’s a champion and that he has character.” He also added “I want to tell the public that they should not whistle (boo) at him. He’s a great rider and does not deserve that, I shouldn’t complain. If Alberto hadn’t waited for me on the second stage (to Spa) where I crashed, I wouldn’t have been in position to fight for this yellow jersey right now.”

Schleck and Contador are rare in that they are good friends off the bike but bitter rivals during the race.
So no change at the top, no change in the KOM although Christophe Moreau closed the gap taking the 40 points available on the last climb, it will be early fireworks on stage 17 there. One change that did take place though was the transferal of the green jersey, as Thor Hushovd again took charge of the intriguing battle for the points classification. The big Norwegian did enough to dress himself in green for stage 17, with a four-point lead in the standings.

A rest day today followed by the stage of this years tour, finishing on the Tourmalet.