CYCLING/Tour de France/Stage Eleven:  Today the Tour returns to La Mongie, the grim little ski resort close to the top of the Tourmalet pass where Lance Armstrong took the race lead in 2002. It is the first summit finish of this Tour and, if the Texan rides to the script he has followed in each of the past five Tours, he will attack.

Though the Tour has gone Armstrong's way so far, he faced a new challenge off the bike yesterday when his fellow countryman, Greg LeMond, the triple Tour de France winner, questioned his integrity. Armstrong frequently gives the impression that he thinks the world is against him, and he certainly has no time for Le Monde, the newspaper in which LeMond broke his silence yesterday.

"Lance is ready to do anything to keep his secret," LeMond told Le Monde. "I don't know how he can continue to convince everybody of his innocence."

Armstrong's manager, Johan Bruyneel, responded: "Le Monde is a newspaper whose intentions we know. And if I can make a suggestion to the editor it would be that they change their sports and cycling pages into a doping page. There's nothing we can do to counter it."

The newspaper had broken the story of Armstrong's positive test for cortisone - for which he was cleared when it was explained that it was because of the use of a skin cream - in the 1999 Tour, and in a stormy press conference the Texan asked the newspaper's correspondent: "Are you calling me a doper or a liar?"

The newspaper, regarded as the voice of the French establishment, has also criticised the organisers for their approach to doping and called for the race to be stopped.

The dispute between Armstrong and LeMond goes back to 2001, when LeMond criticised Armstrong for his links with the controversial Italian trainer Michele Ferrari. "I just wanted to dissuade him from working with a guy like Ferrari, because I was convinced that his relations with Ferrari were a disaster," he said.

"The problem with Lance is that you cannot talk to him. For him you are either a liar or you are trying to destroy cycling."

Le Monde and LeMond are not the only annoyances for Armstrong, who claimed yesterday that a French television station had been trying to gain access to his hotel rooms, and that he suspected they might try to plant something. "The scary thing is, if they don't find anything and get frustrated . . . well, who's to say they won't put something there and say, 'Look what we've found'."

On a day when doping undercurrents once more made waves, the stage here was won by David Moncoutie, a rider who is adamant in his opposition to drugs. He is the other David in David Millar's Cofidis team, and his lone win here continues their rehabilitation after a desperate spring.

This is turning into a fine Tour for the French, as Thomas Voeckler has now held the yellow jersey for longer than any Frenchman since Pascal Lino in 1992.

Small, dark and a strong climber, Moncoutie was not only the regional of the stage but also, as a native of the Lot, the departemental. French stage wins are rare, although this Tour has already seen three; wins by regionaux at home are rarer still, wins by a native of the departement hosting the finish are virtually unheard of.

St Flour - Figeac, 164 km

Leading positions: 1 D Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis - Le Credit Par Telephone 3hrs 54min 58secs, 2 J Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Fassa Bortolo at 2mins 15secs, 3 E Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi at 2:17, 4 T Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole at 5:58, 5 E Zabel (Ger) T-Mobile Team, 6 R McEwen (Aus) Lotto-Domo, 7 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick Step-Davitamon, 8 D Hondo (Ger) Gerolsteiner, 9 L Armstrong (USA) US Postal p/b Berry Floor, 10 S O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis - Le Credit Par Telephone, 11 G Totschnig (Aut) Gerolsteiner, 12 S Sunderland (Aus) Alessio-Bianchi, 13 J Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team, 14 T Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere, 15 L Leipheimer (USA) Rabobank, 16 L Brochard (Fra) AG2R Prevoyance, 17 M Bartoli (Ita) Team CSC, 18 F Mancebo Perez (Spa) Illes Balears - Banesto, 19 A Gonzalez Jimenez (Spa) Fassa Bortolo, 20 K Moerenhout (Ned) Lotto-Domo all same time. 115 M Scanlon (Irl) A2R at 6' 35".

Overall: 1 T Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 46hrs 43min 10secs, 2 S O'Grady (Aus) Cofidis - Le Credit Par Telephone at 3:00 mins, 3 S Casar (Fra) Fdjeux:com at 4:13, 4 R Virenque (Fra) Quick Step-Davitamon at 6:52, 5 J Piil (Den) Team CSC at 7:43, 6 L Armstrong (USA) US Postal p/b Berry Floor at 9:35, 7 E Zabel (Ger) T-Mobile Team at 9:58, 8 J Azevedo (Por) US Postal p/b Berry Floor at 10:04, 9 J Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems at 10:09, 10 F Mancebo Perez (Spa) Illes Balears - Banesto at 10:18. 88 - Scanlon (Irl) A2R at 32' 08".

Team standings: 1. Team CSC 138:04.41, 2. Alessio-Bianchi 2.23 behind, 3. Brioches La Boulangere 4:16, 4. Quick Step-Davitamon 9.49, 5. US Postal 10.48, 6. Fassa Bortolo 11.51, 7. Phonak 12.08, 8. T-Mobile 12.18, 9. Illes Balears 13.05, 10. Liberty Seguros 14.23. 18 AG2R Prevoyance at 35' 52"

Points standings (green jersey): 1. R McEwen (Australia) Lotto-Domo 210 points, 2. E Zabel (Germany) T-Mobile 201, 3. T Hushovd (Norway) Credit Agricole 195, 4. S O'Grady (Australia) Cofidis 186, 5. D Hondo (Germany) Gerolsteiner 176, 78 Scanlon (Irl) A2R 6 pts

King of the mountains (polkadot jersey): 1. R Virenque (France) Quick Step-Davitamon 84 2. A Merckx (Belgium) Lotto-Domo 57 3. P Bettini (Italy) Quick Step-Davitamon 36 4. C Moreau (France) Credit Agricole 30 5. F Mancebo (Spain) Illes Balears 21.

Young rider (white jersey): 1. T Voeckler (Fra) Brioches La Boluangere 46:43.10, 2. S Casar (Fra) FDJeux.com at 4.13, 3. M Scarponi (Ita) Domina Vacanze 12.22, 4. S Chavanel (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 13.00, 5. J Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 13.02, 13 Scanlon (Irl) A2R at 32' 08".

Scanlon 88th

Mark Scanlon finished 115th in yesterday's undulating, 11th stage of the Tour de France, losing a handful of seconds to the sprinters who led in the main field due to small splits in the bunch crossing the line. The peloton crossed the line five minutes and 58 seconds behind the day's winner, David Moncoutié of Cofidis, with Scanlon's group a further 37 seconds down.

Timing is calculated from the first rider in the bunch, so if a gap of more than a second opens up further down the field, this group will be timed independently.

Scanlon has moved up a notch to 88th overall and to 13th in the best young rider classification. His focus will be on riding solidly on today's big Pyrenean stage to La Mongie and getting through the mountains in the days to come. - Shane Stokes.