Brutal Stage Costs Landis

In a single torturous Alpine stage, American Floyd Landis’ lead and chance for a Tour de France victory slipped away almost pitifully Wednesday as rider after rider passed him on the punishing final climb.

Abandoned by his teammates, Landis fell apart, dropped to 11th place and lost the leader’s yellow jersey a day after regaining it in a spectacular ride up the famed L’Alpe d’Huez.

Landis, now 8 minutes 8 seconds behind new race leader Oscar Pereiro, was unable to attack, let alone intimidate his rivals -- which was Lance Armstrong’s calling card en route to a record seven consecutive Tour wins.

“I suffered from the beginning, and I tried to hide it,” Landis said. “I don’t expect to win the Tour at this point. It’s not easy to get back eight minutes.”

With about eight miles to go up La Toussuire, Spain’s Carlos Sastre burst out of a small group of would-be favorites that included Landis, and Pereiro and several other contenders gave chase.

Landis simply couldn’t keep up, losing the 10-second lead he started the day with.

“Sometimes you don’t feel well, and sometimes it’s on the wrong day. What can I say?” said Landis, who is riding with an injured hip.

And with that, Landis went in search of something cold and soothing.

“Drink some beer ... that’s all I’m thinking about now,” he said, adding: “I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed.”

Denmark’s Mickael Rasmussen won the 113-mile Stage 16 through the Col du Galibier and the Col de la Croix-de-Fer -- two climbs so hard that they defy classification in the cycling’s ranking system -- before the uphill finish.

The Tour has lacked a clear leader since the start. Seven riders have worn yellow -- one fewer than the record. Landis and Pereiro each have led twice since the American first won the leader’s jersey last Thursday.

The first time, Phonak -- Landis’ team -- took a gamble: It allowed Pereiro to take the yellow jersey on Saturday by not laying chase as the Spaniard broke away and, in the end, erased a deficit of nearly 30 minutes against Landis.

Landis regained the lead Tuesday by shadowing Germany’s Andreas Kloeden, runner-up to Armstrong in 2004, to make sure that he didn’t gain time on him.

When Pereiro regained the lead Wednesday, Phonak’s original plan appeared to have backfired, and the team looked as if it badly overestimated one of its riders.

“It was difficult to imagine that things would turn out like this,” Pereiro said. “Floyd Landis seemed untouchable, but like everybody, he wasn’t immune to collapse.”