Stage Five: Troyes - Nevers - 196km

No change in the top positions today. It was a long and flat stage. Flat is a relative term on the Tour. Compare the above profile to the upcoming mountain profiles at the bottom of yesterday's Tour post. There were the usual breakaways that got swallowed up by the peleton and the usual sprints while the big boys stayed in the peleton. Tomorrow will be more of the same and the big boys will come out and play in the mountain stages Saturday and Sunday. The mountains will tell us who the players are.

Petacchi roars to victory

Alessandro Petacchi continued his brilliant form with a thrilling win on stage five of the Tour de France.
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Overall Results
1. Victor Hugo Peña COL US Postal 17:54:31
2. Lance Armstrong USA US Postal +00:01
3. Viatcheslav Ekimov RUS US Postal +00:05
4. George Hincapie USA US Postal +00:05
5. José Luis Rubiera ESP US Postal +00:23
6. Roberto Heras ESP US Postal +00:27
7. Pavel Padrnos CZE US Postal +00:27
8. Floyd Landis USA US Postal +00:28
9. Joseba Beloki ESP ONCE +00:33
10. Jörg Jaksche GER ONCE +00:38
11. Manuel Beltrán ESP US Postal +00:39
12. Jan Ullrich GER Team Bianchi +00:39