Iban Mayo of Spain crosses the finish line of the 8th stage of the 94th Tour de France cycling race between Le Grand Bornand and Tignes, French Alps, Sunday, July 15, 2007. Iban Mayo placed second of the stage and Michael Rasmussen of Denmark finished first and took the overall learder's yellow jersey on Sunday. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

TIGNES, France — The Tour de France rest day could not come soon enough for Alexandre Vinokourov.

With the stitches in his knees still causing him unbearable pain, the Kazakhstan rider could not get anywhere close to Michael Rasmussen and just about managed to keep in touch with the other front-runners during Sunday's eighth stage.

"The rest day will do a lot of good. It's true that it was a very, very hard day for me," Vinokourov said. "But Andreas (Kloeden) supported me. He did an incredible job and we tried to limit the damage."

While Rasmussen showed why he is the two-time holder of the King of the Mountains jersey with a brilliant climb up three straight Category 1 ascents, Vinokourov and his Astana teammate Kloeden won over French fans with bravery.

Although Rasmussen has the yellow jersey and Vinokourov is 4 minutes, 29 seconds back, the Kazakh rider has not yet given up on challenging for the Tour.

He may be right, seeing as Monday's rest day will give his battered knees a chance to heal and then he'll only have one more Alpine stage to get through Tuesday — albeit the toughest one — before the race resumes on flatter roads.

"I still have hope," Vinokourov said. "The team did a great job and it's not over yet. Yes, it's not easy with my injury, but a lot of people supported me on the side of the road."

Making their way back to the Astana team bus, Vinokourov and Kloeden were the personification of pain.

Kloeden, who has been riding with a hairline fracture of the coccyx since both crashed on Thursday, hunched forward and had to grip both hand rails tightly to even make his way up the bus steps. Vinokourov slowly placed one leg in front of the other as if the steps were even tougher than the hills he'd just climbed.

In stark contrast, Rasmussen breezed through the three Cat. 1 climbs as if he were on a leisurely afternoon cycle.

He attacked on the Cormet de Roselend, strengthened his lead up the Montee d'Hauteville and was too far ahead to be caught by the time he'd reached the Montee de Tignes.