 A large early breakaway began the stage , for the third day in a row . This breakaway numbered 20 , which after the first category one climb was whittled down to three , as some riders dropped because of the pace and others , from the teams of race leader Denis Menchov and other contenders , were called back by their sporting directors to stay with their team leaders . The three left out front were Yaroslav Popovych , Damiano Cunego , and Gabriele Bosisio . Eventually , Popovych shed his last remaining breakaway mates and for a time appeared poised for the stage win . The pink jersey group absorbed every member of the morning 's breakaway except Popovych and Cunego by the time they began the Monte Petrano climb . Levi Leipheimer , who had previously stated that this was the day he might attack to move up the general classification , was dropped on Monte Petrano and despite the efforts of Lance Armstrong and Janez Brajkovič to pace him back into the pink jersey group , Leipheimer wound up finishing nearly three minutes behind the stage winner , falling from third to sixth in the general classification and effectively eliminating any designs he may have had on the pink jersey . Armstrong had been near the leaders on the climb , but dropped back to help Leipheimer , who would later say that Armstrong saved him " minutes and minutes " by shepherding him to the finish . 
