Lance Armstrong extended his overall lead and his teammate, George Hincapie, won the stage as the Tour de France scaled its hardest day of climbing in the Pyrenees on Sunday.
Hincapie became the first Armstrong teammate since 1999 and the eighth American to win an individual Tour stage. He and Armstrong hugged each other after the six-time champion rode in more than five minutes back.
Hincapie was part of a group of riders that broke away from the main pack early in the sun-baked 205.5km 15th stage from Lezat-sur-Leze to Saint-Lary-Soulan.
Hincapie and Oscar Pereiro, having shaken off the rest of the group, fought for the victory alone on the final and hardest climb. The tall, genial New Yorker beat the Spaniard with a sprint finish, shaking his head in disbelief as he crossed the line high in the mountains.
Hincapie, 32, is the only one of Armstrong's eight teammates to have been with the Texan for all of his six Tour victories, from 1999-2004. He and 33-year-old Armstrong are firm friends, and first met each other as teenagers.
"This is a dream for me," said Hincapie. "I'm really in a state of shock."
Armstrong called it a "perfect day."
"He is my biggest guy, my biggest friend on the team," he said of Hincapie.
"We've been riding together since we were 17," Armstrong added. ``The guy is one of the best riders in cycling. Period. I'm so proud of him.
"To win a stage in the Tour de France is special, but to win a stage like this which is arguably the hardest stage of the Tour is a big, big accomplishment. He deserves it."
Armstrong finished with Italian Ivan Basso, who jumped to second in the overall standings, but still trails the American by 2 minutes, 46 seconds.
Mickael Rasmussen of Denmark, who had been second overall, 1:41 back, fell to third, now 3:09 behind Armstrong.
Jan Ullrich of Germany struggled on the final climb. His overall deficit to Armstrong grew to 5:58.
Armstrong seems set to collect his seventh consecutive victory when the Tour ends, and he retires, on July 24. However, Armstrong remains cautious. He said his lead is "more secure," but that hard racing lies ahead in the last week of the three-week event.
"You never know, you go to a village and take a turn too fast and break your collarbone -- Tour de France over, so you have to be realistic," Armstrong said. "We have a week to go and a lot of things can get in the way."
Crowds are among the potential risks. Some fans ran dangerously alongside the riders up Saturday's climbs. One fan was knocked down by a motorbike carrying a television cameraman who was filming the race. It was not immediately known if the fan was injured.
Hincapie said he went with the breakaway group thinking that he would slow down later on the stage and wait for Armstrong to help him up the day's last two climbs.
But the breakaway group built up a lead of more than 18 minutes on Armstrong's following pack. At that point, Armstrong's team manager gave Hincapie the go-ahead to keep on riding, but this time for himself.
"I just started thinking about the win," said Hincapie. "For it to work out is just a dream come true."
The stage had a succession of five climbs before the final ascent up to the Pla d'Adet ski station above the Pyreneean town of Saint-Lary-Soulan.
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