The 2003 Tour de France was the 90th edition of Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour began in Paris with a prologue individual time trial on 5 July. The Stage 10 occurred on 15 July with a flat stage from Gap. The race finished on the Champs-Élysées, back in Paris, on 27 July.

Stage 10 15 July 2003 — Gap to Marseille,

A long, largely flat 219.5 km stage after three days in the mountains gave the majority of the riders a chance to recuperate, the pace was somewhat slower than the average to this stage. The roadside temperature was high (around 40 °C).

A group of nine riders made a break after just 16 km and slowly built their lead up, to 17 minutes by halfway and to a maximum of around 23 minutes. With such a substantial lead the nine rider group began to fragment with repeated attacks from around 50 km to go, José Enrique Gutiérrez made a solo break and led into Marseille, he was closed down and passed by Fabio Sacchi and then Jakob Piil. These two riders worked together and soon built up a minute lead over the others. Entering the final 2 km to the finish Piil and Sacchi shook hands and began to race, Piil led out but managed to hold off Sacchi to become the first Danish stage winner since Bjarne Riis in 1996. Bram de Groot broke from the chasers to finish third and the peloton came in over 21 minutes down. The top positions in the general classification were unchanged, the best placed rider in the breakaway was over ¾ of an hour down on Armstrong.

Stage 10 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 s.t. 3 + 49" 4 + 2' 07" 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 + 5' 06" 10 + 21' 23"General classification after stage 10 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 21" 3 + 1' 02" 4 + 1' 37" 5 + 1' 52" 6 Team Bianchi + 2' 10" 7 Fassa Bortolo + 2' 25" 8 + 2' 28" 9 + 3' 25" 10 + 3' 45"Points classification after Stage 10 Rank Rider Team Points 1 140 2 131 3 112Mountains classification after Stage 10 Rank Rider Team Points 1 135 2 75 3 74

Stage 11 17 July 2003 — Narbonne to Toulouse,

After the first rest day, one of the shortest stages of the tour at 153.5 km, another flat stage with only one climb, the third category Cote de Saissac at 82 km. The Tour has finished a stage in Toulouse 24 times before, the last time in 1985.

There were a number of early breakaways and one early crash but the US Postal team worked hard to keep the field together. It was not until early afternoon, just before Carcassonne, that a group of eight riders made it clear. They built up their lead to a maximum of around four minutes. With the peloton closing and 10 km to go Juan Antonio Flecha of Banesto attacked from the breakaway and built up a small lead of 20 seconds. Despite the field closing in he held on to win the stage by 4 seconds, the peloton coming in less than a minute behind. Former Tour star Jens Voigt, struggling with illness, abandoned the race.

Stage 11 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 4" 3 s.t. 4 + 15" 5 + 23" 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 + 42" 10 s.t.General classification after stage 11 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 + 21" 3 + 1' 02" 4 + 1' 37" 5 + 1' 52" 6 Team Bianchi + 2' 10" 7 Fassa Bortolo + 2' 25" 8 + 2' 28" 9 + 3' 25" 10 + 3' 45"Points classification after Stage 11 Rank Rider Team Points 1 156 2 148 3 126Mountains classification after Stage 11 Rank Rider Team Points 1 135 2 75 3 74

Stage 12 18 July 2003 — Gaillac to Cap Découverte, (ITT)

The first time trial (not counting the prologue) was late this year, usually it is contested before the first mountain stage. Most expected Armstrong to take it, although in previous days he had shown to be not as strongly reigning as in previous years, but in the end he lost one and a half minutes to Jan Ullrich although winning over the rest of the field. Alexander Vinokourov took third place and remained with Armstrong and Ullrich in the contest for the final win, putting the other favourites at a little distance. Tyler Hamilton is now in fourth place, hanging on despite a broken collarbone from the fall in stage 2.

Stage 12 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 Team Bianchi 2 + 1' 36" 3 + 2' 06" 4 + 2' 40" 5 + 2' 43" 6 + 3' 26" 7 + 3' 55" 8 + 4' 01" 9 Team Bianchi + 4' 37" 10 General classification after stage 12 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 Team Bianchi + 34" 3 + 51" 4 + 2' 59" 5 + 4' 29" 6 s.t. 7 + 5' 01" 8 Fassa Bortolo + 6' 49" 9 + 7' 24" 10 + 7' 55"Points classification after Stage 12 Rank Rider Team Points 1 156 2 148 3 126Mountains classification after Stage 12 Rank Rider Team Points 1 135 2 75 3 74

Stage 13 19 July 2003 — Toulouse to Plateau de Bonascre (Ax 3 Domaines),

The 197.5 km route marked the beginning of four days in the mountains, a flattish first 120 km with two sprints ended in two category one climbs, the Port de Pailhères at 168.5 km and the finish on the Plateau de Bonascre. Again the weather was very hot.

There were a number of early attacks, the peloton chased each escapee down only for another group to try to break. Eventually around midday a group of ten made it clear and after some effort the peloton did not chase them over and the group built up a maximum lead of almost nine minutes. As the first climb was reached the ten-man group had a lead of around six minutes, on the Port de Pailhères the leaders faltered and the group broke up. The group containing the race leaders closed in during the climb and at the summit the leading three (Sastre, Rubiera and Mercado) had two minutes over their chasers. On the start of the 9 km climb to the finish the leaders had retained their two-minute advantage. Over the climb the three leaders were gradually caught but Sastre and Mercado held out, with 3 km to go the peloton started to break, attacks from Zubeldia and Vinokourov put the riders under pressure and while Ullrich caught up Armstrong was dropped. Sastre won and Ullrich came second, Armstrong recovered to reduce his loss to 7 seconds. With the time bonus for Ullrich coming second Armstrong's overall lead was reduced to 15 seconds. However, according to specialists, this was the day that Ullrich should have won the Tour. Still suffering the consequences of the dehydration he had suffered during the previous Time Trial, Armstrong fell back badly at the beginning of the last climb, the Plateau de Bonascre, but Ullrich failed to capitalise on Armstrong's weakness and he didn't attack, winning only seven seconds (plus the time bonus) over the Texan rider. There is speculation about if it was an error of Ullrich's or whether he had not the physical capacity to attack.

Stage 13 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 Team Bianchi + 1' 01" 3 s.t. 4 + 1' 08" 5 + 1' 18" 6 Fassa Bortolo s.t. 7 + 1' 24" 8 + 1' 59" 9 + 2' 32" 10 s.t.General classification after stage 13 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 Team Bianchi + 15" 3 + 1' 01" 4 + 4' 16" 5 + 4' 25" 6 + 5' 20" 7 Fassa Bortolo + 7' 01" 8 + 7' 02" 9 + 8' 47" 10 + 9' 19"Points classification after Stage 13 Rank Rider Team Points 1 156 2 148 3 132Mountains classification after Stage 13 Rank Rider Team Points 1 149 2 92 3 77

Stage 14 20 July 2003 — Saint-Girons to Loudenvielle-le-Louron,

The second day in the Pyrenees, the 191.5 km stage had two category two climbs and four category one climbs spaced throughout the route. The toughest climbs were the Col de la Core at 67 km, Col de Menté at 118.5 km, the Col du Portillon at 156 km and the final climb and descent of the Col de Peyresourde at 180 km. The route included the second category Col de Portet d'Aspet, where Fabio Casartelli was mortally injured in 1995.

Just 162 riders started the stage. There was a very early break of seventeen riders, including Richard Virenque, Gilberto Simoni, Jakob Piil and Manuel Beltrán. The group steadily increased their lead over the US Postal led peloton in the early part of the race. By the first category two climb they were over nine minutes clear, by the Col de la Core over twelve minutes. When the deficit hit almost fifteen minutes the teams of USP and Euskaltel joined at the front of the peloton, later they were joined by Telekom and then Bianchi. By the Col du Portet d'Aspet the lead was reduced to around eleven minutes and on the Col de Menté the leading 17 were showing signs of fatigue and began to drop riders, a group of twelve being led by Virenque over the summit.

The tour then entered Spain for a few kilometres before the climb of the Col du Portillon, where the leading group broke up with a trio of Dufaux, Simoni and Virenque leading the peloton by seven minutes over the summit. The trio remained ahead up the Col de Peyresourde as the field behind them split under repeated attacks, while Armstrong stuck close to Ullrich Vinokourov broke away. Dufaux, Simoni and Virenque kept their lead; they were joined by Peron and fought out the finish, Simoni winning the sprint. Vinokourov led in two others was 41 seconds down and Armstrong and Ullrich came in 1' 24" later.

Stage 14 result Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 Alessio s.t. 3 s.t. 4 + 3" 5 + 10" 6 + 41" 7 s.t. 8 Vini Caldirola–So.Di s.t. 9 + 1' 24" 10 Fassa Bortolo s.t.General classification after stage 14 Rank Rider Team Time 1 2 Team Bianchi + 15" 3 + 18" 4 + 4' 16" 5 + 4' 37" 6 Fassa Bortolo + 7' 01" 7 + 7' 32" 8 + 10' 09" 9 s.t. 10 + 12' 40"Points classification after Stage 14 Rank Rider Team Points 1 156 2 148 3 132Mountains classification after Stage 14 Rank Rider Team Points 1 300 2 Alessio 163 3 98

Stage 15 21 July 2003 — Bagnères-de-Bigorre to Luz Ardiden,

Another day in the Hautes-Pyrénées. The 159.5 km stage had three big climbs, the category one Col d'Aspin at 94 km, the famous hors catégorie Col du Tourmalet at 124 km and finally a hors catégorie finish at Luz Ardiden. These were the last hors catégorie climbs on the 2003 Tour.

The stage had another fast start but the real excitement was reserved for the final 13 km up to Luz Ardiden in what was to turn out to be one of the most epic Tour de France stages in the Armstrong 'era'. In the earlier part of the race Botero and Chavanel escaped and built up a lead of around ten minutes by the Col d'Aspin. On the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet Ullrich made a number of efforts to drop Armstrong, but with no success. By the summit the main riders were still together and the now lone escapee, Chavanel, was four minutes clear. The chasing group of Ullrich and Armstrong was seven strong and had all the main contenders except Vinokourov, who was having a tough time and only briefly joined them at the start of the final climb.

At the start of the final ascent Chavanel was five minutes up on his chasers. The chasing group remained together until about 10 km to go, Mayo attacked and was matched by Armstrong but as Armstrong set himself up for a further push he tangled with the musette bag of a young spectator and crashed, bringing down Mayo and almost Ullrich too. The main group, including Ullrich and marshalled by his friend and former colleague Tyler Hamilton, slowed for Armstrong to catch up. Armstrong did catch up despite almost coming off again when the gear on his damaged bike slipped, almost as soon as Mayo and Armstrong reached the main group they attacked again in a repeat of the situation before the crash. This time a determined Armstrong dropped Mayo and Ullrich and powered off like a man possessed after the lone Chavanel. He caught Chavanel with about 4 km to the finish, sportingly tapping him on the back to acknowledge his efforts, as he passed him to win the stage, his sixteenth stage victory and probably his last chance to gain some time over Ullrich before the final time trial. Ullrich had fallen over a minute behind but, typically, by the finish had fought back and reduced his loss to 40 seconds, not including time bonuses some of which were denied him by Mayo who took 2nd place. Richard Virenque had, barring accidents, won the polka-dot jersey.

Stage 15 result