Stage 5

Finally, a successful breakaway. And what were the odds Stuart O'Grady would be involved? Stewart is one of our favorite riders because he fights for every little thing out on the flat roads--stage wins, bonus points, you name it. Now that's two days in a row a team I've slammed has responded--first Euskaltel in the time trial, now Cofidis with O'Grady's stage win. From now on, I'm going to as for payment before I put teams down.

I usually have plenty of reasons to put down French cycling, but they've done very well this first week. Nazon won stage two and is looking good in the race for the green jersey. Now Thomas Voeckler, who is French despite the German name, wears yellow. He could keep the lead for a few days, as he's got a three minute lead over O'Grady in second and almost 10 minutes on Lance Armstrong.

The contenders will make up that time on the first day in the mountians, so they aren't worried. They should be worried about the weather. This Tour has seen more rain than Wimbledon, and there will probably be more in the next few days. Today there were several crashes. Roberto Heras, Manuel Beltran, and Robbie McEwen were all involved, but all managed to finish without major problems. But still, it stands to reason that if we keep having so many crashes, eventually, one of them is going to knock a big name out of the Tour.