The race to succeed Lance Armstrong as Tour de France king has been spectacularly blown wide open after the stunning collapse of leader Floyd Landis.

Denmark's Mickael Rasmussen (Rabobank) won the 16th stage overnight, considered the hardest climbing stage on this year's race, but the skinny climber's feat, after a long breakaway which saw him take maximum points on all four Cols, was overshadowed by the yellow jersey changing hands.

Landis (Phonak) lost the race lead to Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d'Epargne) after the Spaniard finished third at 1min 54sec behind Rasmussen and Landis struggled.

Australia's Cadel Evans, fourth on the stage, moved back to fifth overall at 2min 56sec behind, while Michael Rogers (12th) is seventh at 6min 47sec.

Pereiro, a former team-mate of Landis who was allowed to take the race lead by the American a few days ago thanks to a 29min breakaway, now leads compatriot Carlos Sastre by 1min 50sec ahead of tonight's final hilly stage in the Alps.

Landis struggled with the pace and the American eventually finished more than 10min adrift to drop to 11th overall at 8min 08sec.

"To have the yellow jersey is the dream of every rider, but there's two big stages still to go. And look at what happened to Landis. He showed that anybody can have an off-day," said Pereiro.

With the potentially decisive final time trial over 57km on Saturday, Pereiro knows that keeping the yellow jersey until Sunday will be difficult.

Germany's Andreas Kloden, Evans and Menchov are the form time-trial riders who are all capable of pulling back some time. 

Kloden also capitalised on the Landis collapse by racing ahead of Russia's Denis Menchov in the final 5km, taking Evans and Pereiro with him.

He finished fifth at 1min 56sec to move up to third overall at 2min 29sec – a deficit he does not want to have on the day of the time trial.

Kloden, runner-up to Armstrong in 2004, said he would rather Pereiro on tonight's final, less punishing day in the Alps.

"I have to see how the legs are. It's getting tougher day by day," said Kloden.

"But if we have a chance to attack tomorrow, then we have to. To close a deficit of 2:29 on Pereiro on the time trial will be too difficult. We have to try and claw back more time before then."

Of the other three Australians in the Tour Simon Gerrans in 78th is the best overall, ahead of Robbie McEwen (118th) and Stuart O’Grady (131st).

With four stages remaining McEwen leads the green jersey.

Justin Davis
AFP