The peloton, mainly under influence of , did not let the lead grow too much, since Zabriskie and Kessler were both standing 2'03" behind the leader, or just 1'03 behind Phonak's leader, Floyd Landis. As the race progressed and the lead of the leaders was brought back from its maximum of 7'30 to about 3'30, the riders from the Phonak team stopped chasing as it was the sprinter's teams to start chasing and close the final gap. However, most teams were probably afraid of 's Robbie McEwen as he had impressively won three sprinters' stages in this tour already, so there were no chasing riders from (for Tom Boonen), no riders from (for Daniele Bennati) and no riders also for as they already had Mario Aerts in the lead. The only team that kept chasing was , because they were the least successful French team so far in the tour and the lead group featured two riders from other French teams.