The grueling 218.5-kilometre course from Orthez to Gourette-Col d'Aubisque traverses five difficult climbs. Two of them are rated beyond category in difficulty, the highest ranking, including the final ascent of 17 kilometers to the finish line, which is situated at an altitude of 1,709 meter.

Just before the 16th stage of the race got underway, a dozens of riders in the Tour de France staged a brief sit-down protest against doping in sport.

Rasmussen became a controversial figure after last week he was dropped from the Danish national cycling team for missing two doping tests.

Tour organizers have said that if they had been informed of the missed tests in time, he would not have been allowed to start.

In fact doping accusations are flying around in this edition of Tour de France. Yesterday Astana team was forced to quit the competition after one of its riders, Alexandre Vinokourov of Kazakhstan, was tested positive for a banned blood transfusion.

Today, the web site of the daily L'Equipe reported that the Italian Christian Moreni tested positive for synthetic testosterone.

L’Equipe said that the French anti-doping laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry, using the Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) procedure, found testosterone not produced by the body in Moreni's urine sample after the 11th stage, on July 19.