Schleck, Vansummeren and others crash

Three and a half kilometres before the end of stage 5, Isaac Galvez touched the wheel in front of him and brought down several riders, including Daniele Bennati, Franck Schleck and Johan Vansummeren. The latter told Sportwereld.be that he got out of it relatively unharmed. "I tried to avoid the crash," he said. "Just when I stopped, Schleck ran into me from behind. I fell over, smack on top of the Luxembourger."

It wasn't so bad for Vansummeren, but Schleck came off worse - not because of injury, but because he ended up losing 2'07. The crash happened just before the "safety zone" at 3 km to go, and the CSC rider therefore didn't get bunch time.

Schleck's teammate Stuart O'Grady wrote about the stage finale in his diary. "Things were looking bright. It was pretty fast and I was keeping Sastre out of trouble and up the front. The boys were really moving as we were pulling back the break. About eight ks from the finish we came into this roundabout and I punctured. We were doing warp speed and the tyre rolled off the rim. I felt like Mick Doohan as the bike kicked sideways and I had to ride it like a bucking bronco. Maybe that number 13 is not so bad as I was lucky to hold it upright.

"After that I was just coming back onto the back of the convoy when I came across another crash and my team-mate Frank Schleck crashed, so I waited for him and tried to help him out."