COURCHEVEL (France), July 12: Lance Armstrong dismissed all doubts about his chances of winning a seventh Tour de France in succession in the first high mountain stage in the Alps between Grenoble and Courchevel on Tuesday.

Perfectly launched by his Discovery Channel team in the last climb to the finish, the American again humbled most of the riders who were hoping to challenge him on his final Tour.

In turns, Germans Jan Ullrich and Andreas Kloeden, Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov and Italy’s Ivan Basso, all seen as the Texan’s leading rivals before the start of the 12th stage, were forced to concede defeat as the American again appeared a class above the rest.

Armstrong took second place in the day’s 181-km ride, just behind Spain’s Alejandro Valverde, with Dane Michael Rasmussen, wearing the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey, finishing third.

Overall, the American leads Rasmussen by 38 seconds and Basso by 2:40.

Armstrong said: “It was the first great day for Discovery Channel. They are a superb team to give the right tempo in the beginning of a climb.

“Today I had good legs and so did three other riders. I could not drop them all.”

As for the stage winner, the Texan added: “With Valverde, everybody has seen the future of cycling. He’s fast, he’s strong, he’s intelligent. It’s impressive.”

The first moment of truth of the Tour confirmed the six-times Tour champion’s domination but it also revealed new talent in Valverde, his team-mate Francisco Mancebo and Rasmussen.

The three were the only riders to remain with Armstrong until the finish in the ski resort which hosted the ski jumping events at the 1992 Albertville Olympics.

Valverde, seen by many as the most gifted rider of the new generation, won the stage in four hours and 50 minutes, after a last gasp sprint with Armstrong.

Rasmussen was third nine seconds behind and Mancebo fourth in the same time after a hard day’s riding over two category-one climbs.

Armstrong’s team chief Johan Bruyneel said: “We knew that today’s stage was very important and the team worked fine.

“Lance managed the finish to perfection and it was difficult to win the stage with Valverde in the group. It was a great operation for Lance.”

Ullrich, the 1997 Tour winner, was dropped by the main bunch 10 km from the finish and lost over two minutes on Armstrong on the day, whil Vinokourov lost over five minutes.

Vinokourov said: “I’m not sure what happened in the mountains, it’s been a very bad day for me. The first climb was tough but we got over that.”

The mini-crisis suffered by Armstrong’s team mates in the Vosges hills at the weekend had raised questions about their real strength on this Tour.

But it was back to Tour business as usual for the Discovery Channel riders in the Courchevel climb, when six of the Texan’s men took the reins at a frantic pace.

Jose Luis Rubiera, George Hincapie and Ukraine Yaroslav Popovych took turns at the front to tire out their leader’s rivals one by one, with yellow jersey holder Jens Voigt being among the first to lose ground. #—Reuters