Lance Armstrong dodged a crash near the end of today's Stage 5 to retain the yellow jersey in the Tour de France.
The Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team captain, keeping to his mantra of staying out of harm's way, missed the crash at a hairy turn about 2 miles from the finish. About 7 or 8 riders went down.
Although four riders led most of the 113 mile race from Chambord to Montargis, the group was caught by the peloton about 6 miles from the finish. After a leadout by several sprinters' teams, Belgian cycling Tom Boonen looked to be on his way to his third sprint win but Australian Robbie McEwen powered past him at the line.
McEwen had something to prove today, after he was disqualified in a sprint finish two days ago for head-butting Stuart O'Grady at the finish line in a battle for second place.
Six-time Tour de France winner Armstrong tried to start the stage this morning without the yellow jersey to honor the fact that he qualified for it only because Team CSC's David Zabriskie crashed just 1.5 kilometers from the finish yesterday. Race director Jean-Marie Leblanc ordered Armstrong to put it on.
The 25-year-old Utah native earned the leader's jersey when he won the individual time trial on the first day and kept it for three days. He went down near the finish of the Stage 4 team time trial, and limped across the finish in 9th place overall.
With more than 2 weeks remaining in the Tour de France, and all the mountain stages ahead, it's uncertain how hard the Discovery Channel team will work to keep the yellow jersey the entire time. The team with yellow usually stays at the front and drives the peloton to keep challengers at bay. With such a long time remaining, however, Armstrong's teammates could get worn out before they're really needed in the mountain stages.
Tomorrow's 123-mile stage from Troyes to Nancy has a little more terrain than today's stage, but it's still suited for sprinters.
Four US riders remain in the top 10 overall: Armstrong (1), George Hincapie (2, Discovery), Bobby Julich, (4, CSC), and Zabriskie (9, CSC).
Armstrong's main challengers are Alexandre Vinokourov (7, T-Mobile) trailing by 1:21; Ivan Basso (10, Team CSC) 1:26 behind; and Jan Ullrich (14, T-Mobile) 1:36 behind. All results are available at CyclingNews.
See other resources for watching the tour and getting results at Where to find Tour de France 2005.
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