He was then joined in his breakaway by five other riders. The sextet held a small margin until the finish, with Pol Verschuere () taking the victory. Stieda, a Canadian, became the first rider from North America to wear the race leader's yellow jersey. The same afternoon, the team time trial was held. The attempt at defending Stieda's race lead by his team proved unsuccessful. A crash by Eric Heiden slowed the team and forced several riders to take evasive action in order not to run into him, in the process scraping their tyres at the street curbing, which caused several punctures. In addition, Stieda was tired by his morning effort and fell back, getting in danger of missing the time limit. Chris Carmichael and Jeff Pierce had to fall back to lead him to the finish, which he reached in time but the yellow jersey was lost. It was regained by Marie, whose team won the time trial, while lost almost two minutes. Hinault personally instructed the team to wait for Niki Rüttimann and Guido Winterberg, who were nursing the after-effects of crashes during the morning stage, accounting for 's comparatively poor performance. lost significant time and four of the team's riders were eliminated because they missed the time limit. bounced back from their disappointment the following day, with Davis Phinney becoming the first American to win a road race stage. Phinney won the stage from a bunch sprint, even though he had been in the day's breakaway for most of the stage. Stage 4 went through Normandy, on rolling terrain. Régis Simon () broke away from the peloton and at from the finish, he held a lead of over ten minutes. He was eventually caught by a counterattack from Federico Echave (). On the finishing straight, Pello Ruiz Cabestany () overtook Echave to win the stage. Dutch champion Jos Lammertink () retired after suffering a broken skull in a crash, while Fabio Parra () also dropped out, courtesy of knee problems, leaving his team with only five of their original ten starters. Dominique Gaigne took over the yellow jersey from his teammate Marie, who he now led by six seconds. Johan van der Velde () won stage 5 and through time bonuses at both intermediate sprints and the stage finish, moved into the overall lead. He got the better of Joël Pelier () at the finish line. Both