The winner of the team classification of the Tour de France twice in three appearances, RadioShack-Leopard took the win in its favorite competition by placing three men in the decisive breakaway towards Gap: Andreas Klöden claimed fifth place, 42 seconds behind the winner Rui Costa, Laurent Didier was 14th at 1'04”, and Tony Gallopin 21st at 2'26”. As the next chase group reached the finish in the department of the Hautes-Alpes, at best 11 minutes after the Portuguese, the Luxembourg-registered squad was easily the winner of the 16th stage with an advantage of 10'43” ahead of Cofidis.
The stage winners have also claimed the overall lead leaping ahead of the former wearers of the yellow race numbers (and yellow helmets), Saxo-Tinkoff which is now second at 3'11”. AG2R had two men in the break in stage 16 and this it is still well poised on the team GC rankings, 4'04” behind RadioShack-Leopard
