GOURETTE (France), July 25: Danish rider Michael Rasmussen won the 16th stage of the Tour de France here on Wednesday, a 218.5 kilometres ride from Orthez to the Col de l'Aubisque.

Rasmussen second stage win of this year's edition saw him also extend his lead in the overall standings -- he leads Spanish rival Alberto Contador by 3 minutes 10 seconds while third-placed Australian Cadel Evans lost more time as he is now 5:03 adrift.

The Dane, impervious seemingly to the furore over his racing here because of missing four dope tests over the past two years, came home 24sec ahead of American Levi Leipheimer while Contador trailed in 35sec behind the stage winner.

Rasmussen admitted that he had opted to use a different strategy to the one he had used in Monday's 15th stage when Contador had given him endless problems by constantly attacking and trying to break his resistance.—AFP