After the hottest and most torturous climbs of this year’s Tour de France, Lance Armstrong has nearly cemented his bid for a seventh consecutive title. It was a banner weekend for the Discovery Channel team – not only for its leader, who added to his solid lead on his main rivals, but also for Armstrong’s right-hand man, George Hincapie. The New York native captured the queen stage – the longest mountain stage – of the Tour yesterday – his first ever Tour stage win and the first such victory for one of Armstrong’s support staff since he first won the Tour in 1999.

With temperatures soaring to 108 degrees on Saturday, up one of the most daunting climbs on offer, Armstrong finished almost a minute in front of his nearest rival, Mickael Rasmussen (Rabobank).Yesterday, he shook off Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) and Rasmussen on the final ascent. Only Rasmussen and Italy’s Ivan Basso (CSC) remain within striking distance, and even then, it appears more and more unlikely that anyone will be able to top Armstrong in his final Tour.

“It’s an ideal situation, but it’s still dangerous,” he said in his usual, cautious tone. “Ivan is very, very strong this year.”

On both stages, Armstrong, Basso, and Ullrich stayed neck and neck nearly throughout.Ullrich’s T-Mobile squad attacked all day on Saturday, with Alexandre Vinokourov, Andreas Kloden, and Ullrich taking turns cranking out in front of the group on the Porte de Pailheres. The Discovery Channel team – and every other squad in the race – exploded completely.

Armstrong then had to fend off a volley of challenges from both Ullrich and Basso. He ultimately neutralized them in the final climb and hit the accelerator in the last 100 meters, leaving both rivals in his wake – two seconds in front of Basso, and 20 seconds in front of Ullrich. Armstrong arrived in Ax-3 Domaines in second place, about a minute behind Georg Totschnig (Gerolsteiner), who literally collapsed onto the burning pavement at the finish line with tears streaming down his face.

Armstrong told French sports daily L’Equipe afterward that he wasn’t particularly bothered by Saturday’s attacks from T-Mobile, as relentless as they appeared. “I felt good, very strong, but I didn’t want to jump up and follow in their tracks right away,” he said.”I waited and watched. In the end, what did it last, a kilometer? I was never in any danger and I was able to close the gap without a problem.”

More troublesome than his rivals this weekend, perhaps, were the extreme heat and the massive crowds that always swell in the Pyrenees but this year were simply out of control. Police and tour officials had to pull boisterous spectators out of the cyclists’ path. The roar from the side of the road reached such decibels that riders could not hear their team managers shouting over the radio.

Commentators mused aloud that Armstrong must have been especially pressured on the climb to Ax-3 Domaines, because his team had disappeared behind him – for the second time this Tour. They underestimated his sangfroid.

“A day like that, with a climb like that one, everyone is isolated. It’s every man for himself, a man-to-man race,”Armstrong said.”At one point, a German fan ran along side me and shouted, ‘You’re all alone!’ I looked around and realized that it was the same for everyone else. I told myself that everything was going perfectly.”

“Perfect” is a word that Armstrong uttered dozens of times in his assessment over the weekend. It was “perfect,” he said, that his teammate and longtime friend Hincapie captured the 15th stage.

At about the 30 kilometer mark, Hincapie joined a group of fourteen riders – most notably Pietro Caucchioli (Credit Agricole), Oscar Pereiro (Phonak), and Oscar Sevilla (T-Mobile). He expected to help his leader on the stage’s last climbs, when Armstrong and the key riders caught up. By the time the breakaway crested the second summit of the day, the Col de Mente, it had an 18-minute lead. It was so large, in fact, that team manager Johan Bruyneel reverted to Plan B: Hincapie would go ahead and fight it out on his own instead of slowing down for Armstrong.

The lead group slimmed down to just a few as it steamed over the stage’s four category-1 climbs, finally just Hincapie and Pereiro in the final five kilometers of the final – beyond-category – climb. As they pedaled up the the Plat d’Adet, Pereiro leaned over and urged an advancing Hincapie to help maintain their advantage over the chasers.Their truce ended in the last 250 meters, as Hincapie sprinted out to become just the seventh American to win a stage of the Tour de France.

Armstrong has yet to win an individual stage in this year’s Tour. Today is rest day, before tomorrow’s final mountain stage. He will likely take it easy on a stage that ends in a long descent with a flat finish in Revel. Armstrong will likely look to Saturday’s individual time trial in Saint Etienne to take a stage win and cement his exit from cycling as a champion.