At the end of the 16th stage in the Tour de France cycle race, July 12, it was still the Italian riders who dominated the field. Over the touch course from Gap to Briancon, Italian racer Graziano Battistini (63) pulled away from the leading bunch and crossed the line in 5 hours, 29 minutes, 9 seconds.

Although he dropped to sixth place over the 107-mile stage, Gaston Nencini (72) of Italy retained the overall race leader's yellow jersey for the seventh successive day. British rider Brian Robinson (125) had band luck when he was going strong with the race leaders. A front-tyre puncture threw him off the road into a ravine on the Izoard Pass. Suffering from nothing more than a cut lip, he remounted and finished 11th, some 3 minutes, 26 seconds, behind the leaders.

The British riders managed to win a special team prize for the stage but they are a long way behind the Italians who had four men among the first seven home. Italy's Massignan (71) was second and Joseph Planckaert of Belgium, third.