First stage of the mountains and the first blood. Advantage Armstrong at the end of game one. Armstrong had emphatically told us that he would not attack on the first mountains stage of this year's race. However he also said that he wouldn't wait till the Alps !

The second mountain stage over the six big Pyrenean mountains and the finish up to Plateau de Beille is reputedly much more difficult than today's race. He planned to make his big move there when everyone was a little weaker.

That plan changed when he saw that Ullrich and Hamilton were in trouble. It was probably all compounded by the fact that the weather conditions changed dramatically during the day from excellent, beautiful racing conditions to cold, torrential rainstorms.

As the riders approached the Col d'Aspin, Armstrong's team, US Postal Service, lifted the pace to get into the bottom corner first. Once around the bend they kept the pace high all the way to the top.

Descending the mountain they lost the wheel of Ullrich. Armstrong explained later that he couldn't believe the speed of the German and didn't want to take those kinds of risks.

His calmness paid off on the final climb as he road away from everyone -- except Ivan Basso. I think that he maybe didn't try too hard to win the stage because he had done all he needed to do vis-à-vis his pre-race rivals and didn't need to win the stage.

Last word for Thomas Voeckler: There was a question mark over what he could do today in the mountains. He dug deep into the suitcase of courage and kept his lead for another day. The next question is, can he recover? I think maybe not, but the yellow jersey adds a bit of extra motivation. Now we'll have to wait ‘till tomorrow to see if he has to give it up.