By Shane Stokes
Oscar Pereiro avenged his defeat at the hands of George Hincapie two days ago when he won today's 16th stage of the Tour de France in Pau. The Phonak rider outsprinted breakaway companions Xabier Zandio (Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne), Eddy Mazzoleni (Lampre-Caffita) and Cadel Evans (Davitamon-Lotto) to the line at the end of the mountainous 180.5 kilometre race.
Philippe Gilbert (Française Des Jeux) led in a five man chase group 2'25 later, with the main bunch finishing a further 59 seconds back. Today's effort moved Evans from 11th to 7th overall, overtaking Floyd Landis (Phonak), Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile Team), Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole) and Andreas Klöden (T-Mobile Team) in the general classification.
Motivated perhaps by the tragic death of Australian rider Amy Gillett in Germany yesterday, Evans went clear in a breakaway group of 11 inside the first 30 kilometres. He attacked alone on the Hors Categorie Col d'Aubisque and was joined after the top by Pereiro, then Mazzoleni and Zandio. These four worked together all the way to the finish, with Evans doing most of the work inside the final few kilometres.
Pereiro was very satisfied to pull off the win after the near miss on Sunday. "I am delighted to get this after my disappointment the other day," he said. "This is a victory for Phonak. We have had a good year, myself and Floyd (Landis) and the other riders, and worked hard to get ready for the Tour."
When told he had moved right up into the top ten Evans was, predictably, very pleased. "That's nice to hear because it was a pretty hard way to go about it. I just wanted to move up in GC, so I said to the other guys 'work with me, work with me, it's in your interests as well as mine.'"
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