The twelfth stage of the 2005 Tour de France got under way yesterday with six-time champion Lance Armstrong wearing the race leader's yellow jersey.
The stage, the last one in the Alps, takes the riders 187km, and over five moderate climbs, from Briancon to Digne-les-Bains.
The stage is ideal for a breakaway by riders looking to win a stage before the terrain turns flat for the sprinters and before the Tour reaches the Pyrenees next week.
Since it is being run on Bastille Day, a French national holiday, an attack by a strong French rider, such as Christophe Moreau, can be expected.
Following his show of strength in the first Alpine stage, on Tuesday, and the way his Discovery Channel team controlled Wednesday's grueling race, Armstrong leads the surprising Danish rider Mickael Rasmussen by 38 seconds in the overall standings, with Moreau in third place, 2:34 minutes adrift.
Before yesterday's stage began, the Quick Step team of Belgian Tom Boonen announced that he was dropping out of the Tour as a result of an injury to his right knee suffered when he crashed at the beginning of Wednesday's stage.
The 24-year-old Boonen had won two earlier stages and was leading in the points competition for the Tour's sprinter's championship.
Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov on Wednesday showed that he still has fight by riding solo over this Tour's highest ascent and going on to win the 11th stage in the Alpine town of Briancon.
Vinokourov, third in 2003, was seen as one of Armstrong's main challengers when the three-week Tour started on July 2. But that changed in the first Alpine stage on Tuesday, when Armstrong surged away to retake the overall lead.
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