Tour de France stage 4 recap: Lance Armstrong splits a second on his bike

July 7, 2:58 PMCycling ExaminerJames Raia

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MONTPELLIER, France — Lance Armstrong now has 26 wins in his three Tour de France careers. But an 84th day as a race leader in the yellow jersey will have to wait.

Armstrong improved from third to second overall Tuesday when his Astana team rode to an 18-second victory over Garmin-Slipstream in the 39-kilometer stage 4 team time trial. Saxo Bank was third, trailing by 40 seconds.

The effort boosted Armstrong to within a fraction of a second of leader Fabian Cancellara (Saxo-Bank) of Switzerland, who has held the race lead since his opening stage win in Monaco. The leading duo is officially listed as having the same overall time, but Cancellara's margin is .022 seconds.

"It's a little bit of a disappointment," said Armstrong, whose Tour de France victory total includes 22 individual stages. "But the yellow jersey is on the horizon. Astana did their maximum."

Armstrong began the fourth stage in third position, 40 seconds behind Cancellara. Astana built a 41-second over Cancellara and his teammates during the hilly, narrow, 39-kilometer route. But the advantage fell slightly with seven Astana riders crossing the together.

The victory by Astana not only moved Armstrong close to the lead, it upgraded his teammates Alberto Contador, Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer to third, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the overall standings.

Garmin-Slipstream, whose squad includes Americans Christian Vande Velde, Danny Pate and Dave Zabriskie, finished with only the minimum five riders.

“The guys were super strong today, for sure, until the finish,” said Tyler Farrar, whose squad had posted the best time by 40 seconds with three teams still on the course. “I thought we were going to get it. But we had to wait to see what Astana would do.”

The team time trial course was particularly difficult for early teams. Three of the first five teams on the course suffered accidents. Fallen riders included Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) of Australia, who has finished second overall the past two years. Evans slipped to 35th place overall, trailing by 2:59.

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