Just another day at the office for the Tour de France peloton as they pedaled their way through the wine-making region of Bordeaux and wound up the day in Dax, at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains. Today’s stage was mostly flat, so the only excitement was whether or not the three-man break (consisting of Walter Beneteau [FRA], Stephane Auge [FRA] and Christian Knees[GER]) would be able to hold-off the peloton. Despite Knees’ constant attempts to pull away from the other two (and the peloton), they were eventually caught just a few km from the finish.

Once the break was reeled-in, it was time for the sprinters to work on trying to win the stage. It was an exciting sprint that literally came down to a photo finish, with Oscar Freire (ESP) just barely edging out green jersey points leader Robbie McEwen (AUS) by inches. Third place went to Erik Zabel (GER) and fourth to Tom Boonen (BEL).

Looming up the road at the mountains of the Pyrenees and tomorrow’s beyond category climb up Col du Soudet. For now, the time sprinting is over. Here come the climbers!

At the end of today’s stage, here are the standings in the general classification:

1. Sergei Honchar (UKR) T-Mobile
2. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak at 1’00″
3. Michael Rogers (AUS) T-Mobile at 1’08″
4. Patrik Sinkewitz (GER) T-Mobile at 1’45″
5. Andreas Kloden (GER) T-Mobile at 1’50″
6. Vladimir Karpets (RUS) Caisse d’Epargne-Illes Balears at 1’52″
7. Cadel Evans (AUS) Davitamon-Lotto at 1’52″
8. Marcus Fothen (GER) Gerosteiner at 1’50″
9. Dave Zabriskie (USA) CSC at 2’03”
10. Paolo Salvoldelli (ITA) Discovery at 2’10”