General Classification : Hamilton up to 6th

Hamilton's big breakaway moved him within 90 seconds of the two Euskaltels, Mayo (at 5:25) and Zubeldia (at 5:16). Hamilton should certainly make up time on Mayo in the individual time trial Saturday, but Zubeldia has been surprising in the two ITTs so far.

To reach Vinokourov and a podium spot, Hamilton would need to beat Vino by 3:50 in the 49-km time trial, which seems unlikely.

Then again, with Hamilton's confidence, you could see him playing the breakaways some more this week.

1) Lance Armstrong (USPS) 70:37:59 2) Jan Ullrich (Team Bianchi) @ 1:07 3) Alexandre Vinokourov (Telekom) @ 2:45 4) Haimar Zubeldia (Euskaltel) @ 5:16 5) Iban Mayo (Euskaltel) @ 5:25 6) Tyler Freaking Hamilton (Team CSC) @ 6:35 7) Ivan Basso (Fassa Bortolo) @ 8:08 8) Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole) @ 11:12 9) Francisco Mancebo (iBanesto.com) @ 16:05 10) Carlos Sastre (Team CSC) @ 16:12

Team CSC leads the team classification by 9:08 over Euskaltel, and 16:03 over US Postal.

Hans de Clerq remains the lanterne rouge, 4:40:37 back.