The longest day

The last time a stage finished with a descent from a Cat. 1, Floyd Landis made his move to claim the yellow leader's jersey and he will surely try to secure victory in stage five.

Landis finished second in Wednesday's third stage after being pipped by Spain's Patxi Vila at the finish line following a descent from the Cat. 1 Col de la Croix-de-Chabouret, though he still took the leader's jersey.

The American Phonak rider leads Vila by nine seconds in the overall classifications after Tom Boonen won Thursday's fourth stage for his the Paris-Nice stage win and tenth victory of the season.

Heading into Friday's Cat. 1 finale at Cote du Corobin, a 7.8km climb with a 6.7% gradient, Phonak team manager John Lelangue was praising Landis as the team leader.

"We spent a good, relaxing day, but the deal isn't yet in the bag," Lelangue said. "It's going well, but there are still three days left and we have lost two members of our team."

Phonak lost both Robert Hunter and Aurélien Clerc earlier in this edition of the Race to the Sun.

"This is where the season's stage races really start," said Lelangue, the former right-hand-man of Jean-Marie Leblanc, who kept his eye on the bigger picture.

"I must acknowledge the great objective is the Tour de France."

"The departure of [Lance] Armstrong leaves the door open for the highest ambitions. I believe Floyd is capable to bring home the Tour. He learned a lot side-by-side with Armstrong and [Johan] Bruyneel."

"When he came here to us, he came as [Tyler] Hamilton's lieuteinant [at US Postal Service], but now, he's a real leader... he takes care of the entire team, not just himself."