The theory of bike racing

Today's stage five was a difficult affair from a tactical point of view. While on paper it still belonged to the opening week with the usual breakaway looking for glory that gets reeled in the final few kilometres by the sprinters' teams, it practically had no flat parts in it and the final rise was only eight kilometres form the finish.

George Hincapie, the American Champion on the Discovery Channel team, said before the start that "we will try to send someone in an early break, but in the end it will be up to us leaders to finish the job." For him personally going into a break was out of the question, as he was not far behind leader Fabian Cancellara in the overall classification, indicating that "it would be a waste of energy." Nonetheless, with only 43 seconds behind there was always the chance to move in GC with a late attack.

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