The fifth stage of the Tour de France 2004 led over 200.5 km from Amiens past Paris to Chartres . The profile of the stage was quite wavy, but there were no major difficulties. The stage included three intermediate sprints and a mountain classification in the 4th category.
At kilometer 8 there was the first attempt to break away by the Austrian Bernhard Eisel and the Italian Alessandro Bertolini . Then the Dutchman Kroon from the Rabobank team managed to catch up with the top duo. Shortly afterwards, however, the outliers were again taken from the big field.
Immediately after the merger, Piil from Team CSC, Tombak and O'Grady both from Team Équipe Cofidis , Rogers from Team Quick Step and George Hincapie from the US Postal team attacked. After a few minutes, Vicioso and Mori also catch up. However, this attack also had no chance, because shortly afterwards there was again the merger with the main field.
The third attempt to break away by Piil, O'Grady, Bäckstedt, Casar and Voeckler was successful. The five outliers quickly expanded their lead to 30 seconds. The French champion Thomas Voeckler - who was only 3 minutes and 10 seconds behind Lance Armstrong - drove in the virtual yellow jersey. The lead of the leading group increased steadily to over 17 minutes. Since there was no constant follow-up work in the field, the top group was able to win the stage among themselves. The French champions tried to break away from the leading group, but it didn't work out. Meanwhile, Stuart attacked O'Grady , but Voeckler and Piil were able to catch up with O'Grady. Shortly afterwards - after a "standing attempt" in which the others came up again - Stuart O'Grady took up the position, who was able to achieve victory. The Dane Jakob Piil was second ahead of Sandy Casar . Thomas Voeckler was able to take over the yellow jersey from Lance Armstrong. As a result of the bad weather there were several falls of u. a. Rolf Aldag , Alessandro Petacchi , and two of Lance Armstrong's helpers.
