"It was an epic day"

That was exciting. After watching the tour day after day in the mountains one always wonders "do the riders ever run into the fans? They are so close!" Well, yea, they do. Lance's handelbars hooked onto a lurch bag ("musette") of a spectator and pulled him to the ground just after had launched an attack on the final climb (Luz Ardiden). Jan Ullrich and Tyler Hamilton slowed the pack down to wait - which did not take long - and Lance caught up and then blew the group apart and went on to win the stage. "I saw at the last second that I was going to hook the bag and thought 'oh shit', but there was nothing I could do". Ullrich led the chase group and his face was the picture of stress.

With a 67 second leading margin he looks to like more of a lock on the tour than before today's stage. Next "big" stage is the last one - the time trial in Paris.