Surprise. That's how I describe the attack of Jan Ullrich. Once a champion always a champion. Ullrich couldn't stand being regarded as an also-ran, and today took the risk of a surprise attack in an attempt to pull himself up closer to a podium position.

To attack so far away from the finish is a brave move, and I think in his mind, it was either climb up the overall standings or get blown away. His attack splintered the field on the Col de Echarasson and damned the yellow jersey Thomas Voeckler to the back of the race.

Armstrong admitted that he was expecting some kind of move from T-Mobile but didn't expect it to be quite that hard. The Texan rode sensibly not responding to the Ullrich's attack. After all he didn't need to as he had a buffer of six and a half minutes over his challenger at the start of the day.

Lance kept his teammates around him and slowly pulled the big German back into the bunch. Never once did he panic. He even told his team manager Johan Bruyneel over his radio not to worry that he was going to win the stage anyway. If it hadn't been for the German attack, I don't think that Armstrong would have attacked the race quite so hard. But once hostilities began, he decided to take advantage of the situation.

On the eve of the Alpe d'Huez time trial, it reminds me of the last time there was a mountain time trial after a mountain top finish. That was in 2001 with Alpe d'Huez followed by Chamrousse. The winner of both stages on that occasion was Lance Armstrong. Um, history repeating itself?