2005 Tour de France - Stage 5

Another flat stage. Lance didn't start with the yellow jersey because he didn't want to wear it unless he had won it. Or so he says. In my mind, he and his team thought they'd try this out to see if they could get it off their backs without losing a minute to somebody. Nice try, but the race director called the bluff and told Lance that either he wear the yellow or not start tomorrow. So he threw it on. It was worth a shot.

Discovery rode at the front for a while... exactly what they wanted to avoid. But halfway through the sprinter teams decided that they wanted to catch a breakaway so they shouldered the load. Discovery was probably riding a comfortable to slow pace to get this to happen.

The breakaway was caught and everybody finished with the same time. Fairly boring stage overall. Mountains coming soon though.