It was what occurred before the race that created a stir, or what Armstrong termed "the little confusion." It began with Armstrong's initial decision not to wear the yellow jersey, thus honoring a tradition that the jersey is not worn the day after the previous leader of the race relinquished the lead because of a crash.

On Tuesday, Dave Zabriskie of CSC crashed near the end of a team time trial, although he eventually finished the race and competed again Wednesday. When Zabriskie went down, his team was leading the trial, but his teammates seemed to lose their concentration and ended up finishing second behind Armstrong's Discovery Channel team. If Zabriskie had not fallen, Armstrong said, CSC would have won the time trial and Zabriskie would have remained in first place.

"I watched the replay of the crash on television last night, and without that crash, Zabriskie would still have the jersey," Armstrong said. "So I didn't feel correct about wearing it."

So when Armstrong showed up Wednesday to sign in for the fifth of the Tour's 21 daily stages, he was wearing his blue-and-white Discovery Channel jersey. When Armstrong was wheeling his bike toward the start line, however, officials insisted that he had to wear the yellow jersey or face ouster from the race. "If you don't start with that jersey, you don't start tomorrow," Armstrong said officials told him.

"So I said, 'O.K., give me that jersey,' " Armstrong said.

Jean-Marie Leblanc, the director of the Tour, later explained the official position. "It's not exactly a tradition," he said of the custom Armstrong wanted to follow. "He wanted to pay homage to Zabriskie, and he did, but the rules state that all jerseys must be worn in competition. Nevertheless, it was a nice gesture, and it served its purpose."

Armst