Armstrong's Tour rivals left reeling

Lance Armstrong's Tour de France rivals were left on the ropes after the six-times winner took back the race leader's yellow jersey in the mountain stage to Courchevel on Tuesday.

Germany's 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich, his T-mobile team mate Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan and Italy's Ivan Basso, third in last year's Tour, lost between one and five minutes in the Alpine stage won by Spain's Alejandro Valverde.

Ullrich, who was dropped halfway up the climb to the finish, said: "I didn't feel that bad but when the tempo went up it felt like the devil had taken my legs away.

"I also had some problems with my breathing. I don't know if it's because of the crash the other day but the result is there to see for everybody. I just couldn't follow the best today."

Ullrich thanked his team mate Andreas Kloeden and tried to be optimistic about the rest of the three-week race.

"I have thank Klodi because he did a big effort to help me to limit the damage," he said.

"Armstrong and his men were superior than everybody today but not all days are the same in the Tour, look what happened to Armstrong's team last Saturday in the Vosges mountains.

"Everything can still happen in the Tour."

Vinokourov had said he would attack on the final climb to Courchevel but had a bad day and was quickly left behind.

"I really don't know what happened to me today,' he said.

"It's the first day in the big mountains and it's clear I couldn't handle it. It was a bad day for me but that's life and I can't do anything about it.

"I felt like something was wrong at the beginning of the stage and hoped it would pass but it was worse on the last climb."

"I was hoping that Kloeden and Ullrich would ride better than me but I've heard they were suffocated by Armstrong's rhythm. He was at the same level as he has been in the last six years."

BASSO SATISFIED

Basso tried to limit his losses during the climb and was satisfied to only lose a minute to Armstrong.

"It wasn't a great day but it wasn't bad either," the 27-year-old CSC rider said.

"When I realised I couldn't keep up with the others I decided to ease off and ride at my own pace. I think I rode well even though I've lost some time. I hoped to do better but I'm happy with the first big test of the Tour."

Ullrich, Vinokourov and Basso will face another test in the mountains on Wednesday's 173-km 11th stage from Courchevel to Briancon in the Alps.

The stage includes the Col de la Madeleine and the 2,645 metre high Col du Galibier, the highest climb of the 2005 Tour.