July 5, 2005 — A dramatic day of team time trial racing today saw Lance Armstrong and his Discovery Channel take the stage and the Yellow jersey, as David Zabriskie (CSC) crashed heavily in the final kilometers.

The day began with Liberty Seguros setting an early standard which seemed to be the fastest time of the day “” but in reality, the big guns such as T-Mobile, Discovery Channel and CSC had chosen to start the fast, tailwind-assisted course a bit more conservatively.

As it turned out, the latter strategy was bang-on. All three teams sped up significantly as the race progressed, with Armstong himself leading his team to victory. The Texan was taking extra-long pulls in the closing bits, looking strong as ever. However, since Discovery Channel was not the last team to start””that honour belonged to CSC, who had the Yellow jersey (David Zabriskie) in their midst””the race was still on for the stage win.

The penultimate time check showed CSC ahead by just three seconds. Each team drove hard to the finish, and as CSC took one of the last final sweeping corners, disaster struck “” Zabriskie crashed. CSC had to keep going for fear of losing time for Ivan Basso, but for Zabriskie, it meant he would give up the Yellow jersey. CSC ultimately finished just two seconds behind. Would CSC have won or Zabriskie kept the jersey had he not crashed? These are questions being asked in bars and cafés everywhere. But for Armstrong, it meant another strong day for his team and his first day in yellow, confirming that he may be well on his way to a seventh Tour victory.

Stage 5:

1 Discovery Channel Team 1.10.39 (57.324 km/h)
2 Team CSC 0.02
3 T-Mobile Team 0.35
4 Liberty Seguros – Würth Team 0.53
5 Phonak Hearing Systems 1.31
6 Credit Agricole 1.41
7 Gerolsteiner 2.05
8 Illes Balears-Caisse D’Epargne
9 Fassa Bortolo 2.19
10 Liquigas – Bianchi 2.26
11 Davitamon – Lotto 2.32
12 Rabobank 2.48
13 Domina Vacanze 3.04
14 Quick Step – Innergetic 3.05
15 Bouygues Telecom 3.08
16 Euskaltel – Euskadi 3.59
17 Lampre – Caffita 4.09
18 Cofidis Credit Par Telephone 4.28
19 Francaise Des Jeux 4.46
20 Saunier Duval – Prodir 5.06
21 Ag2R Prevoyance 5.23

G.C.

1 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel 9.59.12
2 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel 0.55
3 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC 1.04
4 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC 1.07
5 Jose Luis Rubiera (Spa) Discovery Channel 1.14
6 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel 1.16
7 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 1.21
8 Benjamin Noval (Spa) Discovery Channel 1.26
9 David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC
10 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC