Three winners in stage 6

I had never heard of Lorenzo Bernucci until he won stage 6. It's always fun when a dark horse pulls out a stage win. And this was the first win of his career. Wow! It was purely an opportunist win, as about 15 guys crashed in the last turn. Vinokourov probably would have won the stage had he not swerved to avoid Mengin's crash. Bernucci happened to be in the right place at the right time. Take the stage win & run.

Vinokourov is the second winner today. He finished 7 seconds ahead of the peloton, including all the contenders. He also picked up a time bonus for being second across the finish line, so he cut Armstrong's lead by 19 seconds. Yesterday he was 7th, 1:21 behind Lance. Today he's 3rd, 1:02 down. The time is small, but every bit helps, and the morale boost is good for Telekom.

The Telekom coaches still aren't worth the caliber of their riders. Here's Olaf Ludwig on their team web page...

"That will give Armstrong something to chew on," is how team manager Olaf Ludwig judged Vino's tactical masterstroke. "Armstrong was watching Jan exactly at the moment that Vino attacked. That shows the tactical hand we have to play with in the coming stages."

What will it take for them to realize that Vino is their best shot? Will they ever let go of the Jan Ullrich mystique?

The third winner is Thor Hushovd. While all the other green jersey contenders were on their backsides, Thor stayed upright and was 5th across the line, good for 22 points. Zero for Boonen, McEwen, and O'Grady. This is exactly what he needed. He's now just 7 points off Boonen's lead. Hushovd is the only guy to get big points in every sprint, but he can't expect gifts like this every day. He's going to have to beat Boonen in a sprint. More than once.