Plateau De Beille, France ? Michael Rasmussen is starting to resemble Lance Armstrong, and it’s not just because the Dane is wearing the yellow jersey as leader of the Tour de France.

Alberto Contador of Spain reacts as he crosses the finish line ahead of overall leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark to win the 14th stage of the Tour de France. The stage ran Sunday between Mazamet and Plateau de Beille in southern France.

Rasmussen extended his lead against all of his top rivals except Spain’s Alberto Contador in the 14th stage on Sunday, advancing his bid to follow a path blazed by the seven-time Tour champion.

“Rasmussen has done an incredible thing today,” said Johan Bruyneel, sports director of Discovery Channel – Armstrong’s former team that now includes Contador. “The Tour de France is not easy to control.”

The diminutive Dane, who is riding in his fourth Tour, won the first of his two polka-dot jerseys given to the Tour’s best climber in 2005 – when the Texan last wore yellow home.

Rasmussen is showing that he, like Armstrong, knows how to control the race. And just as Armstrong had to continually defend himself against accusations of doping, Rasmussen finds himself under the cloud that has dogged cycling and kept Contador out of last year’s Tour. He missed the race when his former team – Astana – was disqualified on the eve of the start due to a Spanish doping probe that implicated five of its riders.

On Sunday, Contador and Rasmussen dusted the pack and battled one-on-one to the finish of the 122-mile ride from Mazamet to Plateau de Beille, the first of three demanding stages in the Pyrenees.

The two-man show demonstrated how climbers have an edge in the 94th edition of cycling’s main event. The next two stages in the Pyrenees are likely to further narrow the field of contenders, and a time trial on the eve of the July 29 finish in Paris could determine the champion.

Contador showed Sunday he can’t be counted out, tapping his chest and pointing skyward as he finished a bike length ahead of Rasmussen for his first stage victory.

Both were given the time of 5 hours, 25 seconds, 48 seconds, but because of bonus seconds awarded for a stage win, Contador gained 8 seconds on Rasmussen and vaulted to second overall, 2:31 back.

Rasmussen, who has won three Tour stages, denied that he had let Contador win, instead crediting the young Spaniard for seizing a better position to edge him out at the renowned uphill finish.

“This is the Tour de France. You don’t give any presents,” Rasmussen said. “The Plateau de Beille is not something you give away. It was a very well-deserved win.”

Armstrong, who won stages here in 2002 and 2004, once spoke just like that.

Coming from behind to edge Andreas Kloeden of Germany in a dazzling sprint finish in Le Grand Bornand in 2004, Armstrong famously quipped: “No gifts this year.”

Rasmussen has said he has never failed a doping test, and has called himself the Tour’s most-tested rider this year. Armstrong often used to say he was “the most tested athlete in the world.”