the announcement that both Alessandro Petacchi and Mario Cipollini had dropped out of the race, Petacchi due to injury on Stage 5, Cipollini due to an injury on Stage 3 that had reopened. Neither had won any stages. Near the start of the stage, a number of riders crashed, including Lance Armstrong; however, all involved in this crash were able to rejoin the peloton. An early break got caught late, with the last rider being pulled back to the peloton with 2 km to go. A massive pileup at the 1 km mark, however, split the peloton, leaving only a handful of riders with any chance of winning. Young Belgian Tom Boonen took it clearly, with Stuart O'Grady in second. Robbie McEwen was hurt in the crash and limped in towards the finish, getting no sprinters points today. This meant that O'Grady's second-place finish, with its associated 30 points, was enough to put him in green. The overall standings remained unchanged, save for O'Grady closing 12 seconds on Voeckler from his time bonus. Stage 7 10 July 2004 — Châteaubriant to Saint-Brieuc, On the last day for the sprinters before the mountains get started, the major battle was set to be between McEwen and O'Grady for the green jersey, and it didn't disappoint. The first hour or so of racing consisted of a series of failed breaks as the peloton rocketed along at an average speed of 50 km/h. After about an hour, a two-man break consisting of Erik Dekker, who had already won four Tour stages in previous years, and Thierry Marichal shot off and held on for most of the race. The two riders came to a sort of a compromise, with Marichal taking first in the sprint checkpoints, and Dekker taking first in both of the checkpoints for the King of the Mountains competition. Meanwhile, back in the peloton, Bobby Julich's CSC team attacked with 50 km to go, splitting the peloton. The main contenders all managed to hold on in the front group, though, and eventually the peloton would reconvene. The pair was finally brought in by the CSC-led chase around 31 km from the finish, and only a few kilometers later CSC led another attack when Jacob Piil broke off the front, joined by three other riders. With 8.5 km to go, they were brought in only to have another break of seven take off.