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Could it have been tactics by the Discovery Team to let go of the yellow jersey? Taking a rest day before the mountain stages?

Voigt is not even going to be close in Paris. But CSC will hammer their brains out to keep the jersey for their sponsor as long as possible, which relieves Discovery of setting the pace in the Alps. Basso is CSC's team leader. But he is somewhat neutralized going into the Alps by not being able to attack a teammate in Yellow. (The Euro teams still practice this courtesy where if Lance were second to a weaker teammate, it would be understood the jersey is only on loan.) If Basso had been in the breakaway, he would have been chased down by Discovery, T-Mobile and others.

Because of the long flat after the last climb, none of the favorites were going to gain time on the others without being swept up later by the peloton, so the effort would have been wasted. T-Mobile left it up to Discovery to chase and they controlled the gaps nicely without overworking. The evidence that Discovery gave the jersey to Voigt is that the peloton consisted of 60 riders over the last climb which means they were not pushing the pace at all. Also, on the final run-in, the whole Discovery team (8 at the head of the bunch) did not bring the time down at all behind a tired two-man break. They would have been happy to concede enough time to Voigt for CSC to do all the work through to the Pyrrenes. (Cofidis took charge and brought the time down by a minute in the last 6 or 8km setting up the sprint for 4th for O'Grady in the points competition.)