VALLEE LOURON, France -- Laurent Brochard of France won the first mountain stage of the Tour de France today in which some of the favorites made strong advances.

Cedric Vasseur of France barely stayed in the overall lead with Germany's Jan Ullrich in second, only 13 seconds behind. Ullrich finished second last year.

Bjarne Riis, who won the title last year and is Ullrich's teammate for Telekom, moved up to fourth place, 1 minute, 43 seconds off the lead.

ERIK ZABEL WON HIS THIRD STAGE in eight days Sunday. On other days he was second, third, fourth and had a victory taken away from him for straying too much in the final sprint Friday.

Jeroen Blijlevens, who won Friday, has been third the last two days. Mario Cipollini won the opening two stages.

The only stage not decided by a finishing sprint was the fifth on Thursday, when Vasseur had a long breakaway and was able to hold onto more than two minutes of his once 17-minute margin.

But the first mountain stage had the sprinters far outdistanced.

Tuesday is another day of mountains, a 157-mile stretch from Luchon through Andorra to Arcalis.