The Tour de France is about to reach its climax in the Alps as the riders face the fearsome challenge of climbing 11 high mountain passes in three consecutive stages.

Billed as unpredictable after the end of Lance Armstrong's seven-year reign and the withdrawal of an Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, the two main pretenders, the race is still wide open.

During 14 days of racing, most of the time in scorching heat, the yellow jersey has jumped from shoulder to shoulder and now rests with Oscar Pereiro, a Spanish rider with the Caisse d'Epargne team, who never had such a good time.

Eight riders have claimed the overall standings lead and the record of nine set in 1987, will be beaten or equalled unless Pereiro keeps it until the Champs-Elysees on July 23.

Pereiro took the yellow jersey on Saturday after American Floyd Landis, the previous holder, and his Phonak team let a breakaway cross the line a massive 29:50 ahead of the peloton.

It was the biggest gap recorded since 1976 and it confirmed that the Tour was still looking for a new boss.

"It was a tactical move. We didn't want to wear ourselves out chasing all the escapees and Floyd will be stronger than Pereiro in the Alps", said John Lelangue, sports director of the Phonak team.

After a well-deserved day's rest in Gap, Landis will start Tuesday's 15th stage in second place, one minute and 29 seconds adrift of Pereiro.

The other surviving candidates for the overall win - Russian Denis Menchov, winner of the first tough mountain stage in the Pyrenees, Australian Cadel Evans, Spaniard Carlos Sastre, German Andres Kloeden, Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych and American Levi Leipheimer - are not far away.

Fourth-placed Menchov and 15th-placed Leipheimer, the last of the group, are only 1:01 and 5:39 adrift of Landis.

For all these riders, the truth will come from three gruelling stages in the Alps.

On Tuesday, the peloton will head towards the spectacular, moonlike rock formations of the Cols de l'Izoard and du Lautaret.

Then will come the big show, the 13.9-km ascent, at an average gradient of 7.9 per cent, of L'Alpe d'Huez which first hosted a Tour stage in 1952 and attracts hundreds of thousands of fans along its 21 hairpin bends.

The last time the Tour came to the high-altitude ski resort was for a time trial in which Armstrong seized control of the 2004 race with an awesome display of power cycling.

"There was a lot of emotion and adrenaline. There were lots of fans, and it was a little scary ... C'est la vie," he said.

Another mountain-top finish has been lined up the next day as the 16th stage will end at the ski resort of La Toussuire, a Tour host for the first time.

From the start in Le Bourg d'Oisans, the peloton will ride uphill all the way to the Col du Galibier, the highest point of the 2006 race at 2,642 metres.

The pass is so closely linked to the history of the Tour that its summit is the site of the Henri Desgranges monument built in 1947 in honour of the founder of the race.

From Saint-Jean de Maurienne, at the foot of the eastern side of the mountain, the riders will not find a single metre of flat road as they bounce from one col to another - Glandon, Croix-de-Fer, Mollard.

The day will end with the 18.4-km La Toussuire ascent, with an average gradient of six per cent, to 1,690 metres.

The 200.5-km 17th stage from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Morzine has more pain in store for the survivors.

After a 65-km approach, the peloton will face the long climb to the Col des Saisies then head across the spiky summits of the Aravis and La Colombiere and dive down to Cluses.

Behind the second-category Cote de Chatillon will loom the Col de Joux-Plane and its infamous 11.7-km slope at 8.7 per cent, where Armstrong suffered a hunger trough in 2000 and said afterwards: "That was the worst day I've ever had on a bike."

The stage will end with the sharp and tricky descent to Morzine.

After 369.5 kms of mountain riding and three punishing days in the saddle, the riders will barely have time to relax in a transition stage from Morzine to Macon before facing a 57-km time trial on July 22, the eve of the Champs-Elysees finale.

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