But when the final mountain, the famous "Alpe d'Huez" was reached, things were shown to be very different, it looked like Armstrong had been bluffing in order to tempt Ullrich and his team into wasting their energy by forcing the pace too early in the stage. Rubiera attacked on the start of the climb, Armstrong followed, but only a few other riders did - in the end it is just Armstrong and Ullrich. When Rubiera has to drop off, Armstrong looks back. The camera angle made it appear as if he looks straight into the eyes of Ullrich, but in a later interview Armstrong denied this, saying he was looking for who else was around. Armstrong then attacks again. Ullrich cannot respond to Armstrong who loses him and climbs the Alpe alone. He overtakes Roux, and climbs up the Alpe d'Huez in 38'01" - only 26 seconds short of Marco Pantani's record from 1995, scored after a much lighter stage. Kivilev (12th at 4.39) keeps up well, and seems likely to take the yellow jersey in the Pyrenees, whilst Ullrich battles hard to limit his losses and take 2nd place on the stage. For now, the yellow is on the shoulders of François Simon, who scored a creditable 29th place (10.20 behind Armstrong). Stuart O'Grady ends way in the back. After having worn it six days, he says goodbye to the yellow jersey. He is now concentrating on the green one. Armstrong is now the first of the favourites, at fourth place. He will still have to deal with Simon and Kivilev before getting the yellow.