I'm sorry, that doesn't work:

  $ echo "foo" > access.log     # create the access.log with some content
  $ < access.log | cat | head -n 5
  # no output

This works:

  $ cat access.log | head -n 5
  foo
  $ < access.log cat | head -n 5
  foo
  $ < access.log cat | cat | head -n 5
  foo
  $ < access.log head -n 5
  foo