LA PLAGNE (France), July 24: Dutchman Michael Boogerd handed his Rabobank team their second success of the race when he won the 16th stage of the Tour de France Wednesday, a 179.5km ride from Les Deux Alpes to here.

The 30-year-old Boogerd, who last won a stage on the Tour at Aix-les-Bains in 1996 and is more known for his one-week and one-day racing, clocked a time of 5hr 48min 29sec after breaking away from the peloton at the 29km mark.

On what was the hardest stage of the Tour, Spaniard Carlos Sastre of the CSC team came second at 1min 25sec with three-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong on his wheel.

Boogerd, the former Paris-Nice winner who upped and left the peloton after just 29km of riding, was a joy to watch as he crossed the line.

The curly-haired rider with the big smile kissed his three lucky charms and threw his arms into the air after realising he was on his own at the finish line.

The only person waiting was his mother-in-law, who launched herself into his arms as he arrived.

“This is the biggest win of my whole career,” grinned Boogerd after the race. “And it makes it even more special that it’s the most difficult on the Tour.”

However, for a time Boogerd’s win, at the end of three gruelling unclassified climbs, was not quite so sure.

With around five kilometres to race Armstrong left his group of six riders which contained his closest rival, Spaniard Joseba Beloki of the ONCE team.

After dancing on his pedals on the way up to the finish line the 30-year-old Texan then caught up with Sastre with just two kilometres to race and both rode on together in the hunt for the flying Dutchman.

For a brief moment Boogerd appeared to struggle, but once he had passed the red flag at the one-kilometre-to-go mark, Armstrong’s and Sastre’s bid was doomed.

“I though that when I was at the foot of the last climb (to La Plagne) I might not have enough time,” Boogerd, who said Armstrong’s pursuit did not really worry him, told AFP.

“In the last few kilometres I only lost a couple of minutes and my legs felt really good, well, not really good, but quite okay. My team manager just told me if I kept on pedalling I would be okay. I would really have had to have a flat tyre or something like that for me not to win,” added Boogerd.

As for Armstrong, whose bid for a fourth consecutive jersey is now, barring catastophe, virtually guaranteed, he was his usual minimalist self after the stage.

The American has every right to be feeling relaxed. Despite not winning, he stole yet more time from his principal rival Beloki.

Beloki had managed to stick with Armstrong throughout the whole day in a group which contained most of the top riders in the overall standings.

However, when Armstrong left to chase Boogerd, the little Basque climber could not match the Texan’s lightning pace.

He eventually made an effort, upping his pace near the finish line to finish fourth at 2:02. Beloki, who was 4:39 behind Armstrong before the stage, is now just over five minutes (5:06) behind.

After third-placed Lithuanian Raimondas Rumsas, who is at 7:24 behind Armstrong, the remaining riders in the top ten overall are at more than 12 minutes adrift.