Now That's Class 

No matter what you think of his chances of winning 7... you can't listen to Lance Armstrong without realizing that he's just a great guy. Take this for instance:

Armstrong took the yellow jersey Tuesday from fellow American David Zabriskie, a Team CSC rider who fell in a dramatic crash in the final moments of the stage.

The six-time Tour winner started the day opting not to wear the leader's yellow jersey, citing "respect" for Zabriskie. Armstrong set off in his Discovery Channel uniform in the pre-race ride, but race officials stopped everybody before the starting line and asked Armstrong to wear it.

"There was no problem, just a little confusion in the beginning, having not started in the jersey," Armstrong said. "I didn't feel that it was right to start in the jersey."

Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc got strict about the rule book, which states that the overall race leader "must wear" the yellow jersey.

"There was no negotiation," Armstrong said. "Jean-Marie said: 'You don't start in the jersey, and you don't start tomorrow.'"

Before the stage, Armstrong wanted to follow an unofficial tradition by not donning the jersey.

"In light of the tradition of the last 30 or 40 years, no one really takes it if there is a crash" involving the race leader, he said. "We decided to leave it empty today."

He actually did the same thing during the prologue. As last year's winner, he had the option to wear the yellow jersey, but didn't because he only wanted to wear it after earning it for this year's race.