2005 Tour de France - Race Details

Race Details

In Stage 1, David Zabriskie, a former team mate of Lance Armstrong, beat Armstrong by two seconds. In the team time trial of stage 4, Zabriskie fell in the last kilometers, and Armstrong took over the lead.

Armstrong initially refused to wear the yellow jersey in the fifth stage, but was forced by the Tour organisation, who threatened to remove him from the race.

In the tenth stage, the start was moved from Grenoble to Froges.

Before the 20th stage, an individual time trial, Michael Rasmussen occupied the third place in the general classification. During that stage, Rasmussen fell multiple times and changed bicycles multiple times, and lost so much time that he ended up at the seventh place in the general classification. The race jury invoked the 'rain rule' for the Champs-Élysées, meaning that Lance Armstrong became the winner of the General classification the first time the race passed the finish line, rather than the eighth time as normal. The time bonification for the winner of the stage was still given, and Alexandre Vinokourov profited from this as he won the stage after an escape in the last kilometer (the first time since 1994 that the final stage did not end in a sprint), and passed Levi Leipheimer in the general classification to end fifth.

During the final ceremonies in Paris, Armstrong was allowed to talk to the crowds, the first time in the Tour's history that a winner was given this chance. It has since become a regular occurrence.