This Bastille Day stage saw a large breakaway with thirteen riders (top-ten plus Giunti Massimo, Stephan Schreck and Giovanni Lombardi) that gained over four minutes on the peloton. Included were the cycling sprintersThor Hushovd and Stuart O'Grady. The escape was disorganised, with mostly Axel Merckx trying to set the pace and organise. On the Col du Corobin it was Merckx 's task to throw the sprinters off to minimize Robbie McEwen's green jersey point loss. At the same time Davitamon–Lotto in the peloton chased the sprinters. Sandy Casar escaped first on the ascent to the Col du Corobin, but is caught again. David Moncoutié tried next and manages around a 30" lead. Despite the rest chasing him he is holding them off. Moncoutié follows Richard Virenque's National Holiday stage win of last year.
23 July 2005 — Saint-Étienne to Saint-Étienne, 55.5 km (34.5 mi)[1]
Highlights:
Ivan Basso: Spent much energy in the first half of the race, which made him faster than Armstrong at the 14 km flag but in the end he was placed only fifth.
Michael Rasmussen: Defending his third place did not work out too well. Nearly everything that could fail, failed. First he slipped and fell at a rotonde after 4 km. This caused his specially calibrated bike to ride suboptimally. He demanded a new hind wheel, but instead got a whole new bike. Not happy with this bike, he had to wait for the mechanic to fix his personal bike. This caused him to panic, lose his self-confidence and his ability to cut curves. On a technical downhill part he saltoed into a ditch. In total, he changed his bike two times and his wheels two times.
