July 3, 2005 – Belgium’s Tom Boonen took a great stage win today, riding the perfect race following a textbook leadout by his Quick.Step teammates on the 181.5 km stage from Challans to Les Essarts. This is Boonen’s – the young rider labelled the “next Johan Museeuw” – third stage victory of his short career. With the win, Boonen (who had a bad toothache going into today’s stage) will wear the Green points jersey tomorrow.

The only real action of the day was a four-man break that took off in the first hour of racing, containing Laszlo Bodrogi (Credit Agricole), David Canada (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom), and Sylvain Calzati (Ag2r-Prevoyance). Although the break did get over four minutes at one point, the move eventually got reeled back. However, last year’s hero Voeckler did get some rewards for his break, taking the Polka dot jersey for winning the one and only mountain sprint of the day. The G.C. stayed more or less the same, apart from Bodrogi climbing up to third overall. CSC’s Zabriskie stayed in yellow, riding at the front, out of harm’s way, in the finale.

Stage 2

1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick.Step 3.51.31 (47.037 km/h)
2. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole
3. Robbie McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto
4. Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone
5. Luciano Pagliarini (Bra) Liquigas-Bianchi
6. Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Fassa Bortolo
7. Peter Wrolich (Aut) Gerolsteiner
8. Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
9. Baden Cooke (Aus) Française Des Jeux
10. Allan Davis (Aus) Liberty Seguros-Würth

G.C.

1. David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC 4.12.22
2. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 0.02
3. Laszlo Bodrogi (Hun) Credit Agricole 0.47
4. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 0.53
5. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel 0.57
6. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 1.02
7. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Fassa Bortolo
8. Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC 1.04
9. Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Illes Balears-Caisse d’Epargne 1.05
10. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spa) Liberty Seguros-Würth 1.06