July 4, 2005 – Quick.Step’s Tom Boonen solidified his Green jersey today, taking a quick gallop to the line from La Châtaigneraie to Tours after 212.5km of racing. The race was punctuated by a few early break attempts, including a great attack to win the first KOM by Bouygues’s Thomas Voeckler – wearing the Polka Dots jersey. Following that Erik Dekker (Rabobank), Nicolas Portal (AG2R) and Rubens Bertogliati (Saunier) broke away and established a sizable lead of almost five minutes at one point.

The bunch seemed content to let the break dangle, despite the danger of Dekker – a multiple-stage winner and fantastic all-round cyclist. As the stage progressed, Bouygues Telecom pulled awhile (to set up for the last KOM of the day for Voeckler), followed by Quick.Step, eager to take the stage win. Unfortunately for Voeckler, Dekker took enough KOM sprints to wear the Polka Dots tomorrow.

With just 2km to go the break was a few seconds ahead of the charging pack, with the sprinter’s teams – Quick Step, Lotto, Fassa – pulling hard to set up for the finale. As the break was caught, Fabio Cancellera (Fassa Bortolo) made a dash for the line with a kilometre to go, but was caught. In the final hundred metres Stuart O’Grady (Cofidis) and Robbie McEwen (Lotto) had a bit of a tussle – with McEwen headbutting O’Grady, later to be relegated to the back of the pack. In the end it was all Boonen again as he took the win, regal in Green.

Results:

1. Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick.Step 4.36.09
2. Peter Wrolich (Aut) Gerolsteiner
3. Stuart O’Grady (Aus) Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone
4. Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Française Des Jeux
5. Allan Davis (Aus) Liberty Seguros-Würth
6. Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner
7. Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Liquigas-Bianchi
8. Anthony Geslin (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
9. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole
10. Angelo Furlan (Ita) Domina Vacanze

G.C.

1. David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC 8.48.31
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