Stage 12 - Castelsarrasin to La Mongie (123.659mi/199km)
(from VeloNews)
Italian Ivan Basso (CSC) won Friday's 12th stage of the Tour de France, beating Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service-Berry Floor) at the finish of the first mountain stage between Castelsarrasin and La Mongie on Friday.
Frenchman Thomas Voeckler (Brioches la Boulangere) started his seventh day in the race leader's yellow jersey and had to work hard to keep it on his shoulders over the 197.5km run. The 24-year-old French national champion, who led Armstrong by 9:35 overnight, came in around four minutes behind Basso to retain the yellow jersey.
Basso, considered a future winner of the Tour, crossed just ahead of Armstrong, whom he followed in the final kilometers of the 15km climb, the second of the day and the first summit finish of the Tour.
However, Armstrong will be happy with his day's work as Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) struggled in more than two minutes later. Germany's 1997 winner and five-time runner-up now sits more than three minutes behind Armstrong on general classification.
OVERALL STANDINGS
1. Thomas Voeckler (F), Brioches La Boulangere, 51:51:07
2. Lance Armstrong (USA), U.S. Postal Service, 05:24
3. Sandy Casar (F), FDJeux.com, 05:50
4. Richard Virenque (F), Quick Step-Davitamon, 06:20
5. Andréas Klöden (G), T-Mobile, 06:33
6. Ivan Basso (I), CSC, 06:33
7. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears-Banesto, 06:43
8. Jakob Piil (Dk), CSC, 06:53
9. Santos Gonzalez (Sp), Phonak, 07:23
10. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 08:11
-jw