July 22, 2005 – Giuseppe Guerini (T-Mobile Team) has taken today’s 153.5 km stage, Issoire to Le Puy-en-Velay. Guerini took the win on a gutsy breakaway in the final kilometer, after some hesitation from the three other escapees: Sandy Casar (Française Des Jeux), Franco Pellizotti ( Liquigas-Bianchi) and Phonak’s Oscar Pereiro. For Pereiro, the stage win was not of importance – he has one win already and it was more important for him to drive the move so that he could move into the top-10.

And the race for Green is still mean: Robbie McEwen took the sprint over Credit Agricole’s Thor Hushovd; Hushovd’s lead is not enough to say he can sit up on Sunday: it will be a race to the wire.

However, in the GC category, things seem more certain. Tomorrow might be a day where Discovery’s Lance Armstrong can take a stage win – he hasn’t yet – but most importantly, he still leads; two stages to go until Paris..

Results:

1 Giuseppe Guerini (Ita) T-Mobile Team 3.33.04 (43.225 km/h)
2 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française Des Jeux 0.10
3 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas-Bianchi
4 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 0.12
5 Salvatore Commesso (Ita) Lampre-Caffita 2.43
6 Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team CSC 2.48
7 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Ag2r-Prevoyance
8 Bert Grabsch (Ger) Phonak Hearing Systems
9 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone
10 Pieter Weening (Ned) Rabobank 3.50

Overall:

1 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 81.22.19 (41.664 km/h)
2 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 2.46
3 Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank 3.46
4 Jan Ullrich (Ger) T-Mobile Team 5.58
5 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d’Epargne 7.08
6 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner 8.12
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 9.49
8 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 10.11
9 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 10.42
10 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 12.39