America's Floyd Landis starts the 182km stage between Bourg d'Oisans and La Toussuire in the yellow jersey

Retired seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong looks on from the Discovery Channel car as the race gets underway

France's Christophe Moreau is the first to break from the peloton but he is caught barely a kilometre later

Sandy Casar, Mickael Rasmussen and Tadej Valjavec make the first major break and soon open up a lead of over one minute

Spain's Jose Luis Rubiera leads a chasing pack that grows to 14 riders as they follow the leaders up the Col du Galibier

The peloton tackles the hors category climb at a more leisurely pace in the intense heat around four minutes adrift

Rasmussen is first to reach the Col du Galibier summit - at 2,642m it is the highest point on this year's Tour

Landis is content to ride in the peloton some seven minutes behind the leading trio on the long descent

A climb up the Col du Telegraphe follows - Sylvain Chavenal takes a tumble on the way down but remounts and carries on

The riders take in the spectacular scenery in the Alps before the hors category climb up the Col de la Croix-de-Fer

Rasmussen breaks on the Croix-de-Fer to take his second climb of the day and hold the King of the Mountains jersey

The Dane takes the remaining two climbs to claim a gritty stage win, but the main story is unravelling behind him

Tour leader Landis virtually stops on the climb to La Toussuire and comes in over 10 minutes behind Rasmussen

This opens the door for Oscar Pereiro and the Spaniard races up the category one climb to take third and the overall lead