Cycling: Armstrong's exhibition leaves the pack in awe

Dominating display of climbing power in the heat of the Pyrenees by American Tour leader has rival Beloki sweating to stay in touch

Victory in a second consecutive stage in the Pyrenees for Lance Armstrong yesterday placed the Texan in a virtually unassailable lead overall which should, barring accident or major upset, see him wearing yellow in Paris tomorrow week.

In what was virtually a re-run of Thursday's ascent to La Mongie, an acceleration by Armstrong's Spanish domestique Roberto Heras proved too much for all his rivals barring, once more, the Basque Joseba Beloki. But on this occasion the final part of the stage became an exhibition of the American's climbing power, not the Spaniard's.

On Thursday Armstrong had been content to follow his team-mate's back wheel to the finish before breaking away in the final metres, while on this occasion the Texan waited only a few moments before coming around the Spaniard and bounding off on his own with some five kilometres left to climb.

Then it was time for Armstrong to go into his classic climbing style, beating away at high speed at the pedals – calculated, at their fastest, to turn between 110 and 120 times per minute. After a brief instant, as Beloki tried to react and keep the American somewhere within sight, albeit 100 metres further ahead, the Texan then looked around and accelerated once more, abandoning Beloki to his fate.

With the American's advantage rocketing rapidly past the 30-second mark, his team-mate Heras attempted to shake off Beloki to make it a double success for US Postal.

On this occasion, although Armstrong turned his head and waited briefly for the Spaniard to bridge the gap, the margin between Heras and Beloki failed to open quickly enough for the Texan to risk his own advantage, and so the 30-year-old once more turned his head towards the summit of the Plateau de Beille climb.

In temperatures reaching the mid-thirties, the American had his jersey open to the waist, but with his jaw jutting out firmly against the skyline, his unremitting pace even increased as the climb eased slightly in the final kilometres.

Heras, realising he could not reach the American, waited once more for Beloki before promptly sitting on the Basque's back wheel. It was a way of reminding the ONCE-Eroski leader, that should the unthinkable happen and Armstrong crack, the Spaniard would be waiting in the wings. As it was, Armstrong reached the line with just over a minute to spare over over the duo.

It was widely thought that Armstrong would repeat his victory gesture of last year's Pyrenean stage finish of Saint-Lary-Soulan and point to the sky, given that, early on, the race had once more passed the memorial for his friend and former team-mate, Fabio Casartelli, who was killed while descending the Portet-Aspet pass.

Not so: this time – and in stark contrast to Thursday's rather limp winning wave of his right hand – the American put both arms high in the air, clearly celebrating the damage he had caused all of his rivals in just two days in the mountains.

"There's still a long way to go," Armstrong insisted, when he was asked whether he considered this to be the decisive step forward towards overall victory. "A lot of dangerous climbs before Paris. I have never celebrated any victory before the final lap on the Champs-Elysées. But the most important thing for me today was seeing all my team-mates together at the foot of Plateau de Beille. I can see how strong they all are, probably one of the strongest teams in the history of cycling."

The Frenchman Laurent Jalabert was probably not so pleased about Postal's undoubted collective power. Another long attack, very similar to Thursday's, this time accompanied until the final climb by the Swiss rider Laurent Dufaux and the Spaniard Isidro Nozal ended yet again by being swallowed up by Armstrong's blue troops. This time, Jalabert was 10 kilometres from the finish when the American's climber, Jose Luis Rubiera, flashed past at the front end of a rapidly shrinking peloton. The consolation for the Frenchman was a return to the King of the Mountains jersey, which he won last year.

But the real focus of the race was once more on Armstrong, now over two minutes clear of his nearest rival and with Beloki's team-mate, Gonzalez de Galdeano, a good three minutes further adrift. Perhaps it is too soon to say that Armstrong has won the 2002 Tour de France, but it is certainly not too early to say that nobody else has virtually any chance of doing so.

Alasdair Fortheringham writes for Cycling Weekly

Yesterday's tour details

STAGE 12 (Lannenezan to Plateau de Beille, 199.5km, 123.9 miles): 1 L Armstrong (US) US Postal Service 6hr 00min 29sec; 2 R Heras Hernandez (Sp) US Postal Service +1min 0.4sec; 3 J Beloki (Sp) ONCE-Eroski s/t; 4 S Botero (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca +1:11; 5 I Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spa) ONCE-Eroski s/t; 6 R Rumsas (Lith) Lampre Daikin +1:23; 7 C Sastre (Sp) CSC-Tiscali +1:33; 8 M A Serrano (Sp) ONCE-Eroski +1:37; 9 O Sevilla (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca +2:07; 10 A Kivilev (Kaz) Cofidis +2:39; 11 A Merckx (Bel) Domo-Farm Frites +2:47; 12 D Moncoutie (Fr) Cofidis; 13 L Leipheimer (US) Rabobank; 14 S Goubert (Fr) Jean Delatour all s/t; 15 F Mancebo (Sp) iBanesto.com +3:17; 16 C Moreau (Fr) Crédit Agricole s/t; 17 D Frigo (It) Tacconi Sport +3:32; 18 J Azevedo (Por) ONCE-Eroski +3:33; 19 Jose Enrique Gutierrez (Sp) Kelme-Costa Blanca +4:04; 20 H Zubeldia (Sp) Euskaltel-Euskadi +4:21; 21 I Nozal (Sp) ONCE-Eroski s/t. Selected: 142 D Millar (GB) Cofidis +40:32.

Leading overall standings: 1 Armstrong 46hr 47min 47sec; 2 Beloki +2min 28sec; 3 Gonzalez de Galdeano +3:19; 4 Rumsas +5:15; 5 Botero +5:44; 6 Serrano 7:14; 7 Heras Hernandez + 8:01; 8 Azevedo +8:24; 9 Sevilla +9:05; 10 Mancebo +9:10; 11 Sastre -9:32; 12 Leipheimer +10:21; 13 Moncoutie +11:10; 14 Merckx (Bel) +11:26; 15 Kivilev +11:39; 16 I Basso (It) Fassa Bortolo +12:29; 17 Nozal +12:39; 18 M Lelli (It) Cofidis 13:27; 19 Frigo+13:34; 20 N Vogondy (Fr) FDJeux.com +13:36. Selected: 74 Millar +50:20. Points standings: 1 E Zabel (Ger) Deutsche Telekom 217pts; 2 R McEwen (Aus) Lotto-Adecco 216; 3 S O'Grady (Aus) Crédit Agricole 159; 4 B Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 148; 5 J Svorada (Cz Rep) Lampre-Daikin 119. Mountain standings: 1 L Jalabert (Fr) CSC-Tiscali 142pts; 2 Armstrong 84; 3 Beloki 66; 4 L Dufaux (Swit) Alessio 66; 5 R Virenque (Fr) Domo-Farm Frites 59. Teams: 1 ONCE-Eroski 140hr 35min 40sec; 2 US Postal Service +7min 39sec; 3 Kelme-Costa Blanca +12:17; 4 Cofidis +13:58; 5 CSC-Tiscali 21:33.