It may just be an off day for him, or others have trained up to the high standard Armstrong has set.Yellow Jersey: Lance Armstrong (US Postal),Km 38.5 - Col du Lautaret: 34.3 km climb at 3.8%, 1st Cat.Over the Hors Categorie Izoard, ONCE'S Jorg Jaksche became the virtual Yellow Jersey. Or, he must gain 4.7 seconds per kilometer. Ivan Basso clawed his way up to the Armstrong group. Tiring the US Postal team would be the only way to win the Tour. Here's the race:Simoni, Virenque and Dufaux at the front and working together.The Armstrong group went over the top of the Peyressourde 55sec behind Vinokourov.

Constant, unrelenting pressure, they promised.

It's now McEwen 188 points, Cooke 186 and Zabel 169.Kilometer 100, 41kms to go. There has been some regrouping at the front.

It looked like he took Beloki, Mayo and Ullrich with him, among others.Vino continued to cruise on into town for the solo win. Green Jersey hopefuls will probably begin the fight for their jersey by fighting for these points. It's a cooler day with mist in the air. Adios, Muchachos!

He's in Yellow. Armstrong and Ullrich are in a dead heat and Vinokourov is flying!

Botero is leading the field.
A reasonably flat time trial is a test of absolute power. Excellent.After a flurry of furious attacks almost from the gun, it all came together for the first intermediate sprint. He looked like a bundle of nerves with a visible shaking.

Yesterday he was riding a lot of the stage in the middle which was very unusual for him.

With a kilometer to go, they were caught.

But plans have been made...Here are the time gaps and the points awarded.Postal is leading the field down the Aspin.On the lower slopes of the Tourmalet: Chavanel has dropped Botero, who already looks out of gas. Ludovic Turpin and Massimiliano Lelli are between Tyler and the peloton. The top 20 in GC will leave at 3-minute intervals.

It looks to me as if he has a higher pedaling cadence than in years past. At this time the lead is down to about 6 minutes.

Armstrong's crash really disturbed Ullrich's rhythm.

There are now 8 riders with a 30 second lead on their former break companions.

Just a test of pure will and pure power. Over the Pailheres. When Vinokourov twice rolled off the front like a train leaving a station, without any real explosive acceleration, Armstrong twice let him take chunks of time. Then at the sprint, Lastras finds the strength and wins the stage.McEwen wins the field sprint and get the Green Jersey from Baden Cooke. Look for more of the same today. So far, like in 2002, all the talk has been just that.

Postal's Heras had come off, but he has returned.Now Mayo attacks and Armstrong easily closes the gap. It gaps Hamilton who recloses.

Inigo Chaurreau has been trying to bridge up to them. The average speed for the first hour was a leg-breaking 52.5 kph.At 61 kilometers, a break formed that looks like it might go. I see Vinokourov and the Euskaltel boys. I think that climb after crossing the Seine will be a shock to some of the big guys.

So much for "shaking things up and putting Postal under pressure". But, Quick-Step is a powerful team and will try to keep the jersey as long as possible. But, put his team-time-trial placing in the upper group of the teams, perhaps with Telekom, 6th at 1min 30sec and the entire complexion of the race changes. Jakob Piil is gone and the others are playing games and are very disorganized. Sunday's stage with 6 rated climbs, 4 of them category 1, will crush the lesser riders. Or, to put it terms of the physics involved, Does Ullrich also posses an advantage in relative power, strength to weight?

Riders are coming off the back in droves. Armstrong took off.

That means that they all have to attack to gain time.

Riders are crashing in the wet, windy conditions.

A tough mountain stage has only 20 points for the winner. Finot's adventure was over. Any difference is really minor for the purposes of this discussion. But the motivation that the 3 giants (Armstrong, Hamilton and Ullrich) have will drive them to superb rides. Ullrich had it videotaped and watched it in bed. There are 2 rated climbs, one 35 km from the finish.
Did he buy a six-pack?Km 35.0, Col de Latrape: 5.0 km climb at 7.5%, 2nd Category.Also as expected, riders are abandoning. The Yellow Jersey is on Quick-Step's Virenque. By coming in 40 seconds ahead of Ullrich at Luz-Ardiden, I believe that Armstrong made the race a dead heat.