The Tour of Spain passed into the Pyrénées today where it was expected that major shake ups in the general placements might occur.

There were indeed changes in the constitution of the top ten, but more of a sorting out than a shake up.

Of course these are early days yet, with two extremely difficult days in the Pyrénées to come, so more radical changes are likely to follow.

At 190km, today's stage is one of the two longest of the tour and is comprised of 4 major cols plus a 15km long 1st category climb to the finish.

From the Alto de Monrepos onward, where 9 riders escaped the peloton to take a lead that never exceeded 2 minutes, today's race was a continuously fluctuating contest of attack and counterattack, escape and counterescape, by solo and by group.

The first breakaway group contained on one to threaten the general order, and by the ascension of the 17km long l'Aubisque, the situation had begun to change.

Led by Luis Perez, a new group formed in front, which included Roberto Heras, Felix Cardenas, Unai Ona, Michael Rasmussen, and several others.

The group led by 55" at the summit, where extreme fog & mist made the course dangerous. Cardenas fell on the descent, but managed to remount his bike and catch up with the leaders.

Meanwhile the peloton, itself broken up into several groups, was very active, with attacks being launched at different times by Aitor Gonzalez, Oscar Sevilla, Isidro Nozal & Igor Glez. Galdeano, David Etxebarria, Gorka Gonzalez and others.

The leader's group led by as much as 1'07", and all eyes were on Heras because of the damage he could inflict on Nozal & Galdeano.

With no other Once teamated in sight, Nozal led a desperate effort on the Col de Soudor to limit the margin. As Nozal & Co. closed the gap to 20", Rasmussen & Osa shot ahead unchallenged.

Heras, Perez, & Co. Were overtaken with less than 20km to go, as Osa & Rasmussen continued to distance themselves in front.

Finally, Osa dropped back at around the 15km mark as Rasmussen continued unfazed, looking quite invincible as he took on the final climb to Cauterets.

Nozal was struggling, evidently paying for his earlier efforts to keep Perez & Heras in check. Attacks were materializing from all quarters, meanwhile, but most decisively from Beltran & Cardenas.

As Rasmussen, a former VTT World Champion, crossed the line for his 3rd victory since turning pro, Cardenas, Beltran, Perez & Osa were sorting out the top 5 places.

The real question on everybody's mind was whether Beltran would displace Nozal to take the leader's Gold Jersey. Beltran, who went into today's race with a 2'42" deficit to make up, finished in form just 59" behind Rasmussen.

Nozal, in a supreme effort that left him absolutely drained, finished 23rd at 2'46" down to save his jersey, hoding a safe overall 55" advance on Beltran.

Dario Frigo put on a furious sprint to come in 6th, just 18" behind Beltran, putting him in a surprising 3rd overall while Rasmussen jumps to 9th thanks to his gala effort today.

Stage classification

1 - RASMUSSEN
2 - CARDENAS à 55"
3 - BELTRAN à 59"
4 - PEREZ à 1' 08"
5 - OSA unai 1' 10"
6 - FRIGO
7 - MANCEBO

General classification

1 - NOZAL
2 - BELTRAN à 55"
3 - GLEZ GALDEANO 1' 21"
4 - FRIGO à 3' 07"
5 - HERAS à 3' 18"
6 - MANCEBO à 3' 40"
7 - Aitor GONZALEZ à 4'
8 - VALVERDE à 4' 03"
9 - RASMUSSEN à 4' 24"

Mountains

1 - CARDENAS, Felix 86
2 - PEREZ, Luis 58
3 - RASMUSSEN, Michael 33
4 - HORRACH, Joan 23
5 - NOZAL, Isidro 20
6 - HERAS, Roberto 20
7 - OSA, Aitor 18

Points

1 - PETACCHI, Alessandro 50
2 - NOZAL, Isidro 47
3 - GLEZ. GALDEANO, Igor ESP ONE 45
4 - PEREZ, Luis ESP COF 43
5 - ZABEL, Erik GER TEL 42
6 - ETXEBARRIA, David ESP EUS 40
7 - DEAN, Julian NZL CSC 37
8 - CARDENAS, Felix COL L2C 37
9 - BELTRAN, Manuel ESP USP 34

Combined

1 - NOZAL, Isidro 8
2 - PEREZ, Luis 17
3 - RASMUSSEN, Michael 22
4 - BELTRAN, Manuel 27
5 - CARDENAS, Felix 27
6 - VALVERDE, Alejandro 31
7 - GLEZ. GALDEANO, Igor 38

Teams

1 - ONCE - Eroski 60:31:27
2 - IBANESTO.COM a 7:07
3 - EUSKALTEL - Euskadi a 7:16
4 - KELME - Costa Blanca a 10:57
5 - COFIDIS, le credit par telephone a 11:37