The hopes of Russian cyclist Denis Menchov won the Tour de France suffered a blow yesterday when it lost ground in the sixteenth stage, won by Frenchman Cyril Dessel (AG2R-La Mondiale).
Dessel won the stage, a distance of 157 kilometres from Cuneo, Italy, Jausiers.
The French rider beat his compatriot Sandy Casar (Francaise des Jeux), while the Spanish David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne) finished third.
The Luxembourg Frank Schleck (CSC) retained elmaillot yellow leader of the overall standings and exceeds the escort, the Austrian Bernhard Kohl, by seven seconds. The Australian Cadel Evans appears to eight seconds.
Menchov (Rabobank) was overtaken by other favorites in the fall of the Summit of the Bonett-Restefond, the roof of the Tour of 2,802 meters, and lost 35 seconds to respect their rivals.
The Russian fell to fifth place in the overall standings, 63 seconds behind the leader.
"Little by little, in the ascent to La Bonetto, I began to believe in victory," said Dessel.
"At the beginning I was working for my leader, Tadej Valjavec, because we wanted to catch (Stefan) Schumacher. But after I devoted my chance in the downhill. "
The American Christian Vande Velde, who began the stage in fifth place in the overall standings, lost all hope to feel exhausted and departing at a distance of 4:03 minutes.
A group of five riders escaped in the first 40 kilometres, including the German Stefan Schumacher, who on promotion to the Passage of the Lombardy left behind their peers and went alone.
The prosecution of 30 men was less than three minutes behind Schumacher at the foot of the Summit-Restefond Bonetto.
Dessel and Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych, along with six other riders, reached to Schumacher in the absence of 27 kilometres.
At the top, the Frenchman Sandy Casar and Dessel, with David Arroyo and Popovych, escaped, before they won in Dessel elsprint final to win his first stage in a Tour.
