seconds and then further. In the 15 km to the third climb they established a 1'50" gap. Their advantage reached 7'50" at 90 km raced, fell back over the fourth climb, the Cote de Montsalvy, before rising again to over eight minutes. The leaders took an eight-minute advantage into the final 10 km and the attacks began from within the trio. Flecha had an attempt and was caught, but then Moncoutie broke away and the remaining pair didn't chase. His lead grew by 60 seconds in the next 4 km and he cruised over the line for his first Tour victory 2'15" ahead of his two chasers, who both looked decidedly jaded. Moncoutié is a native of the region and the first régionaux winner since 1974. The peloton came in six minutes after Moncoutié and there were no changes to the top ten. Stage 12 16 July 2004 — Castelsarrasin to La Mongie, This 197.5 km stage was the first to enter the Pyrenees. The route had no categorised climbs until the 160 km mark. The two climbs were both cat-1, the Col d'Aspin was included in a stage for the 66th time and the finish was at La Mongie (third inclusion), a ski resort at the top of another cat-1 climb. There were expectations that Armstrong would make a move on this stage, as he had won a previous stage to La Mongie in 2002. It was another sunny, cloudless day at the start but as the riders approached the mountains there was heavy rain. A break by four riders in the first two minutes was allowed to get away. Counter-attacks were swallowed up by the US Postal and Brioches la Boulangere led peloton, but the foursome built their lead over the long approach to the Col d'Aspin to a maximum of just over four minutes. With about 100 km raced the peloton started to cut into the leaders' advantage and caught them three km from the start of the ascent of the Col d'Aspin. US Postal led the peloton up the mountain, setting a pace that dropped many non-climbers. There were several attacks on the ascent and the riders were led over the summit by Mickael Rasmussen, who had a 5" lead over Christophe Moreau, Virenque was third. Despite the wet road the descent was rapid and broke up the peloton. The rain stopped as the riders approached