Alexandre Vinokourov (center) is breathing down Lance Armstrong's neck -- he trails the overall lead by 62 seconds. AP
	RELATED • Bernucci avoids pileup, steals Stage 6
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If you missed Thursday's crash at the end of Stage 6, a wheel-crumpling, Lycra-rending multibike smash-up within sight of the finish line in Nancy, don't worry. We'll be seeing footage of it for years to come. The directors at the Outdoor Life Network love nothing more than a nice wipeout. Two years after it happened, we're still wincing at the sight of Joseba Beloki slamming into the melting pavement on the road to Gap.

Beloki fractured his femur, elbow and wrist that day and has not been the same rider since. The good news from Nancy is that everyone at least was able to extricate themselves from the morass of limbs and spokes to finish the stage. The first domino to fall was Christophe Mengin, the local boy riding for Francaise des Jeux. Mengin was the sole survivor of the five-man breakaway group that had been off the front for the bulk of this rainy, 125-mile stage from the Champagne region into the Alsace.

After attacking his fellow attackers, and dropping them on a small climb 14 kilometers from the finish, Mengin could smell the win. Inside the city limits with just a kilometer to go, he clung to a tissue-thin advantage over two riders: an Italian named Lorenzo Bernucci and an opportunistic Kazakh by the name of Alexandre Vinokourov, from whom we have not heard the last.

Desperate to hold them off, Mengin took the final corner much too fast, crashing hard into the barriers. Vino, riding just behind, slowed enough to avoid going down, but had to unclip from one of his pedals, losing all momentum and handing an incredulous Bernucci the first victory in his four-year pro career.

So while the talk of the day will be of the Mengin's doomed heroism and the pileup he spawned, the guy I'm thinking about is Vino, who went into today's stage in seventh place, trailing Armstrong by one minute, 21 seconds. Now, as a result of his late surprise attack, Vino sits in third, just 62 seconds back.

Keep an eye on this man, who mumbled his motto after a stage win in last month's Dauphine-Libere: "When I feel good, I attack. When I don't feel so good, I attack." He finished third in the Tour in '03, then missed last year's race with a badly injured shoulder. Going into this year's race, he said all the right things about how he's there to ride for T-Mobile's putative tam leader, Jan Ullrich -- maybe just cherry pick a stage win or two, if the opportunity presents itself. Don't believe it. Lance Armstrong is inside Ullrich's head, and that Ullrich never will win another Tour until the Texan retires. Vinokourov is not only the most dangerous rider on the T-Mobile squad -- he beat Ullrich by 15 seconds in the Tour-opening time trial -- but Armstrong's biggest threat in the peloton.