have long breakaway winners as the main competitors recuperate. On a hot and hazy day with a slight breeze 160 riders started the stage. The race started with a flurry of attacks, all were quickly closed down – including a twenty-man break. US Postal and Voeckler's 'Bakery Boys' led the peloton. After 30 km raced a four strong attack built up a little lead, the group pushed their lead out to 60 seconds over the first sprint but were pulled back to barely 15" soon afterwards. With the leaders so close there were plenty of riders trying to cross the gap and they were caught at the 65 km mark by a Rabobank lead peloton. There were a number of other attacks, including a twelve-man attempt, but Lotto and Quickstep closed them down, the overall pace was high – over 45 km/h average in the second hour. However, around 15:00, with 100 km raced, ten men made it away, coalescing from a number of smaller breaks – they were a sufficient mix of teams (nine!) and low places (the best placed was 43rd) that there was no team wanting to chase. The ten quickly pulled away, gaining a 2'50" advantage in the next 15 minutes of racing. After an hour in the lead and with 50 km to go their advantage was 10'50". The peloton was 'policed' by Brioches la Boulangere and the ten men kept working together into the final 15 kilometres, leading by 13'19". As the finish approached, cooperation among the ten fell apart and a series of attacks and chases split and rejoined the group. With around 5 km to go Aitor Gonazalez attacked for a second time and tore away into a 15" lead as the others hesitated, only Nicolas Jalabert and Christophe Mengin chased and they couldn't catch him. Gonzalez won, Jalabert grabbed second and the others drifted in. The peloton came in 14'12" back, with sprinters points going down to 25th place there was a strongly contested sprint, with McEwen just beating Hushovd for 11th place and one extra point over his green jersey rival. The top ten in the classement général was completely unchanged. Monday, July 19, is a rest day before a return to mountains – the Alps. Stage 15 20 July 2004 — Valréas to Villard-de-Lans, This 180.5 km stage was the first in the Alps, and it was all up