Ullrich recovering

Despite a disastrous start to the Tour when he crashed into the back of the team car the day before the first stage, Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) is getting better again as the race progresses. In his diary on the team's website t-mobile-team.com, Ullrich re emphasised his satisfaction with the team's performance to place third in the team time trial, only 35 seconds behind Discovery Channel.

"Basically, we're still happy that we put in such a good performance yesterday and that, personally, I also felt good. I experienced great sensations in my legs. It was something completely different than in the first stage, and I don't even want to think what I could have achieved there if I had had the legs as good as yesterday. But, that's water under the bridge now and I'm just happy that I've got over the effects of my crash in training. That's largely thanks to the help of my physiotherapist Birgit Krohme and our two doctors Lothar Heinrich and Stefan Voigt.

"Tomorrow [Stage 6] should be fairly similar to today, but we're slowly starting to build up to the stages in Germany and the following stages in the Vosges and Alps. We're looking forward to it!"