Plateau De Beille, July 20: Lance Armstrong crushed his rivals for the yellow jersey with another stunning climbing performance on the gruelling 198km — 12th stage of the Tour de France here on Friday.
The 30-year-old US Postal team leader, who pulled on the race leader’s jersey the previous day, coasted past team-mate Roberto Heras and ONCE rider Joseba Beloki around seven kilometres before the summit finish of the unclassified category Plateau de Beille.

The American crossed the line after dancing his way up the monstrous ascent, which has featured only once on the Tour before, in 1998 when Italian Marco Pantani took the honours, in 6hr 00min 29sec to gain a minute on his closest challenger Beloki.

Beloki came third at 1.04sec adrift after climbing specialist Heras pulled away from him in the dying metres to finish second, at 1.03 behind his team leader. Bureau Report