Everyone more relaxed without heavy hitters

Tour de France: The absence of Lance Armstrong has been felt this week, if in more subtle ways than the withdrawal of Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso.

There have been no crowds, no barriers and no burly security men around the Discovery Channel team bus and the team's directeur sportif, Sean Yates, says the team is far more relaxed without the constant focus on the seven-time winner.

The first week, too, has been more relaxed, although Tom Boonen might not agree. The world champion again slipped up at the stage finish here, with Robbie McEwen taking his third sprint win. However, without Armstrong gobbling up four or five stage wins - and two fewer teams in the race - there is less pressure on the squads to get results from the off.

Armstrong's absence will be felt even more acutely today, when the field tackles the first great set-piece of this year's race - a 30-mile time-trial from St-Gregoire to Rennes. For the past six years, the time-trial stages have been seen in reference to the Texan's quest for his next victory.

This time, however, the real significance of today's stage will only be known in two weeks when the race nears Paris. The old build-up line that "the Tour starts today" is doubly true - only after this will there be any sign of who will be in the final mix.

The stage is now wide open. Of the contenders for victory in Paris, the American Floyd Landis has the best time-trial record and produced the best prologue.

Yesterday, Boonen's lead-out men did not look organised and he was on his own in the finish straight. McEwen, in contrast, is receiving excellent service.

Boonen punched his bars in frustration after the finish because he will have only two more chances for a win before the Tour hits the mountains on Wednesday.

Guardian Service

(Lisieux - Vitre, 189km)

1 R McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 4hrs 10mins 17secs, 2 D Bennati (Ita) Lampre-Fondital, 3 T Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step-Innergetic, 4 B Eisel (Aut) Francaise Des Jeux, 5 T Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole, 6 O Freire (Spa) Rabobank, 7 E Zabel (Ger) Milram, 8 L Paolini (Ita) Liquigas, 9 G Steegmans (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto, 10 I Isasi (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi ast.

General classification: 1 T Boonen (Bel) Quick-Step-Innergetic 29hrs 21mins 00secs, 2 R McEwen (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto at 0.12secs, 3 M Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile at 0.21, 4 O Freire (Spa) Rabobank at 0.25, 5 G Hincapie (US) Discovery Channel at same time, 6 T Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole at 0.27, 7 P Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel at 0.35, 8 F Landis (US) Phonak at 0.36, 9 V Karpets (Rus) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears at 0.37, 10 S Gonchar (Ukr) T-Mobile st.

Team classification: 1. Discovery Channel 88:04:46; 2. Team CSC +1; 3. T-Mobile +2; 4. Caisse d'Epargne +7; 5. Gerolsteiner +18; 6. Phonak +26; 7. Lampre +37; 8. Saunier Duval +42; 9. Rabobank, 10. Credit Agricole +43.