Finishing in 35th place, 15 seconds in arrears of stage winner Oscar Freire, Team Milram's Erik Zabel dropped nine places on the overall classification from second to eleventh, but as a result of Paolo Bettini's abandon, the evergreen German becomes the new points leader by default.
"In the last 500 meters the legs have stopped pushing," said Zabel in a team statement, "and I've arrived [at the finish] with a small gap. Unfortunately, I've not maintained my overall ranking, but I take comfort being the leader in the points classification."
