Oscar Pereiro topped a four-man breakaway in a nailbiting sprint finish to stage 16 of the Tour de France.

Pereiro headed a group that included Cadel Evans, Eddy Mazzoleni and Xabier Zandio in Tuesday's finish in Pau.

Lance Armstrong maintained his lead over his rivals after fighting off a number of attacks on the last big mountain stage of the race.

The Texan was briefly dropped on the Col de Marie-Blanque and Col d'Aubisque before reeling his rivals back in.

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1601: The group including Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, Rasmussen - in fact all the main contenders - pulls in almost three-and-a-half minutes behind Pereiro.

1558: As the sprint is picked up, Evans cannot keep pace any more after all his hard work and has to make do with fourth. Pereiro goes into a head to head with Mazzoleni for the win, but comes within a whisker of losing it to Zandio when he starts his celebrations a little too early.

1556: The riders go under the 1km-to-go barrier. Evans leads from Mazzoleni, with Pereiro thhird and Zandio fourth. But there's the tiniest of gaps between that quartet.

1553: Evans still leads the front of the leading quartet. He and his rivals lead the group that matters, with all the team leaders, by three-and-a-half minutes with less than 3km left. Shouts and screams continued to be bellowed out by the spectators lining the streets of Pau.

1551: There's just a few kilometres left before the four leaders start jockeying for position and playing mind games with each other for victory. Evans, though, is still desperately trying to lift the tempo in a bid for the biggest possible time difference in the overall standings. It remains to be seen whether that will scupper his chances of a stage win.

1548: This is how the stage stands with 7km left:
Leaders: Evans, Mazzoleni, Pereiro, Zandio
Chasers: Vasseur, Flecha, Serrano, Geslin, Gilbert, Pineau, Ludewig, Turpin +1m 57s
Armstrong group +4m 15s

1542: The pink jerseys of T-Mobile, the green of Credit Agricole and the blue of Gerolsteiner are the chief chasers in a bid to cut the damage done by Evans on Jan Ullrich, Christophe Moreau and Levi Leipheimer respectively in the overall standings. With 10km left and four minutes to make up, it's now all about damage limitation.

1536: At 15km to go, Evans bids to pull clear... or at the very least lift the tempo. With Armstrong et al still closing rapidly - now at 4m 28s - it's understandable.

1528: The four out front come over the summit of the fourth-category climb at Cote de Pardies-Pietat. It could be set for a nailbiting finish, as their lead has recently been slashed to just five minutes by a pumped-up peloton. There's 20km of racing to go.

1522: It remains to be seen whether the lead four will be caught by Ludewig and Serrano, who are just 1m 45s back.

1518: The leaders arc and weave their way through Nay. All four of them still look strong with less than 30km to the finish now. The crowds from the mountains have thinned a little on the flat but the cheers are still coming out thick and fast.

1511: There are just 40km to go of the day's action. The pink jerseys of T-Mobile try to up the pace but they are now unlikely to catch the four leaders on the predominantly flat final parts of the stage.

1501: Pereiro gets back into contention and leads once more with Evans, Zandio and Mazzoleni. Another 6m 38s back Armstrong is once more inside his cordon of Discovery riders cruising down the mountain side.

1451: Evans and Pereiro are joined by Mazzeloni on the descent but, almost immediately, Pereiro pulls over with a problem with his bike. It remains to be seen whether he can get back with that leading two again.

1446: Pereiro joins Evans at the front. The pair peg their ears back as the slowly get towards a far flatter finish.

1442: Descents can be a great leveller of riders. The likes of Kloden and Popovych get themselves back in contention with their team leaders. Evans has pulled his lead over them to more than five minutes, but Pereiro remains hot on his tail.

1430: Rasmussen moves to the front of the Armstrong group to take points in the King of the Mountains competition. That group remain 4m 13s behind Evans.

1425: Vinokourov and Heras are caught by Ullrich, Basso, Armstrong, Rasmussen, Landis, Leipheimer and Mancebo. While they slog it out, Evans moves up a gear as he heads over the top of the Col d'Aubisque and gets ready for the last 72km of the day. Pereiro is 47 seconds behind.

1420: Evans has just 1.5km left to the top of the Col d'Aubisque now. His face, covered in sweat in the bright sunshine, is a picture of concentration.

1410: Ullrich attacks once more... Basso follows... and, after a brief hiccup, Armstrong joins them too. Everyone's having a punt at shattering the race leader on the last real climb of the Tour. Some five minutes up the mountain, Evans is flying.

1409: T-Mobile combine to put the pressure on Armstrong. It merely paves the way for the Texan to move to the front of that group with Hincapie as his protector. Very few riders are able to keep pace. Among those keeping up are Basso, Landis, Leipheimer and Basso.

1403: CSC now look to be setting the tempo for Basso to break. First, Julich goes and then Carlos Sastre has a stab. It remains to be seen whether Basso has the legs to make Armstrong crack. Further up, though, Evans breaks clear of his fellow leaders in a long-term bid for the stage win.

1401: Armstrong and his Discovery team are being given something to think about. Andreas Kloden and Bobby Julich both try to break... but it fails.

1357: Roberto Heras decides to fly out of the group Armstrong in a bid to make up for a poor Tour de France to date. But Armstrong's team-mate has a lot of time to make up by himself. Meanwhile, a further minute up the field, Vinokourov continues to soar up the Col d'Aubisque.

1346: Vinokourov goes on his latest break. With the sun shining down on him he's able to pull out a reasonable gap with a good 13km left of the climb.

1337: The leaders hit the Col d'Aubisque - the last big climb of the Tour - a 16.5km ascent at an average gradient of 7%. They are 1m 42s clear of Serrano, 2m 30s clear of Pereiro and Mazzoleni, and about five minutes in front of Armstrong and the rest of the top contenders.

1324: There's American chats galore going on among the leaders. Armstrong and Floyd Landis are locked in conversation on the descent, while George Hincapie takes time for a chat with Levi Leipheimer. Feeding time follows moments later for the riders.

1315: Ludewig heads the 11 leaders over the Col de Marie-Blanque. Serrano, still trying to close the gap, comes over the summit 1m 32s behind. The group of Armstrong, Ullrich and Basso are 3m 13s off the leaders' pace.

1309: Armstrong briefly dips off the back of the main Tour leaders but it doesn't look like it's anything serious or that he's remotely fazed by the climb. He resumes his position moments later.

1304: With 11 men still clear in front, Pereiro breaks away from Vinokourov who gets sucked back up by Armstrong, Ivan Basso et al. Pereiro, though, looks set to get caught pretty sharpish.

1302: Kashechkin suffers a nosebleed after accidentally being hit in the face by a spectator. He receives treatment and, as a result, has to drop off the chasers.

1256: Alexandre Vinokourov storms off the front of the peloton but few riders are able to go with him. Andrey Kashechkin, Oscar Pereiro and Levi Leipheimer, though, join him.

1250: Everyone is now well on their way up the Col de Marie-Blanque - a first category, 9.3km ascent which should see major splits appearing now.

1244: Santiago Botero and Bradley McGee, who has a back problem, can't maintain the pace of the race and fall back. Unfortunately, worse will be to come for that pair on the Cole de Marie-Blanque and Cole d'Aubisque.

1233: There's no monumental tussle for the first climbing points of the day over the top of the Col d'Ichere. The results are:
1. Jerome Pineau 4pts
2. Jorg Ludewig 3pts
3. Chris Horner 2pts
4. Fred Rodriguez 1pt

1224: The leaders are nearing the top of one of the day's mini-climbs - the Col d'Ichere. As they head up it, Marcos Serrano flies off the front of the peloton in chase of them but he has a good five minutes to make up on them.

1214: The Discovery Channel team move to their customary place at the front of the peloton. They have four minutes to make up on the breakaway.

1208: The current breakaway in full: Xabier Zandio, Cadel Evans, Fred Rodriguez, Juan Antonio Flecha, Chris Horner, Cedric Vasseur, Anthony Geslin, Jerome Pineau, Philippe Gilbert, Jorg Ludewig, Ludovic Turpin.

1159: There's no real changes in the green jersey competition after the first sprint of the day. The results are as follows:
1. Philippe Gilbert 6pts
2. Ludovic Turpin 4pts
3. Juan Antonio Flecha 2pts

They are three of 11 riders now 55 seconds clear. The biggest danger is Australia's Cadel Evans - in 11th place in the race 13 minutes behind Armstrong.

1150: Vinokourov, Hushovd and Leipheimer rejoin the main pack. But attacks continue to come thick and fast. Now Sabier Zandio, Juan Antonio Flecha and Jerome Pineau are out on their own. There were 35 rider blood tests before racing today - in the Bouyges Telecom, Francaise des Jeux, Phonak, Cofidis and Saunier Duval teams. They were all clean.

1140: The pace is causing even the best of them to keep up so far on Tuesday morning. Thor Hushovd, Alexandre Vinokourov and Levi Leipheimer are the latest to drop out of action. At the front, Juan Antonio Flecha, Marcos Serrano and Franco Pellizotti break clear.

1135: There's another crash - this time last year's runner-up Andreas Kloden is involved. He's back racing with the best of them before you know it.

1133: Everyone's reunited... for now. But Vladmir Karpets, who crashed in the neutral zone earlier, and Santiago Botero briefly drop off the back of the pack before getting back into action.

1127: There's the trademark speedy chaos at the start of the stage. A group of 13 riders break clear to pull out a 15-second gap immediately. They include Yaroslav Popovych, the team-mate of Lance Armstrong.

1119: There are two less riders in the peloton on Tuesday after Magnus Backstedt and Gianluca Bortolami failed to make the sign-in. There are still 156 riders left in the race and they all get off to a cracking pace as the action begins for the day.