Key moments

Lance Armstrong almost ended the day with another yellow jersey. Were it not for a fraction of a second, the American would be the leader of the Tour de France. Instead he has to be content with a stage victory – Astana’s first in the race – and the knowledge that he came oh-so close to taking the overall lead from Fabian Cancellara. Lance had to make up 40” to take the jersey off the Swiss from Saxo Bank and, at the 30.5km mark, he was 41” ahead. But by the finish, the team of Armstrong and Contador was 18” better than its nearest rival, Garmin-Slipsteam and 40” better than Cancellara’s Saxo Bank squad.

The Progress Report
The first team to start the team time trial was Caisse d’Epargne. They survived the course without crashing and posted times at the first and second check that were not beaten until the 14th team to start, Liquigas beat them by eight seconds. Katusha, however, eclipsed the Spanish team in the third check and at the finish setting the early standard with 47’52”.
Rabobank was the first team to demonstrate the complicated nature of the early part of the route: Denis Menchov crashed on a left turn at around the one kilometer mark. He quickly remounted and rejoined his team-mates. Alessandro Ballan also fell on the same turn but also wasted no time in getting back on his bike.
There were several other accidents throughout the day, including one involving four riders from the BBox Bouygues Telecom team, including Bonnet, Arashiro and Rolland. Van den Broek (SIL) crashed in the first two kilometers and never rejoined his team-mates which had already lost 48” to Caisse d’Epargne at the 10km mark.

Astana’s Triumph
Garmin and Astana were seven seconds slower than Caisse d’Epargne at the 10km mark but both set the fastest times as they passed the 19.5km and 30.5km checks. The American team had five riders for most of the stage – Wiggins, Vande Velde, Millar, Zabriskie and Hesjedal – but they finished the course at an average of 50km/h and set the fastest time of the day, beating Liquigas by 40”. But then came Astana…!
The team of Armstrong and Contador was equal with Garmin at the 10km mark and 12” ahead of Saxo Bank. Then Astana took the best time at 19.5km and the yellow jersey appeared under threat: the 40” deficit that Armstrong began the day with was down to 2” – as Saxo Bank was at 38”. At the 30.5km mark, Armstrong became the virtual leader by one second (beating Saxo Bank by 41”) but at the finish is was exactly 40” between the winning team and that of the reigning yellow jersey.

Cancellara Keeps the Yellow Jersey
Armstrong will have to wait another day at least if he wants an 84th yellow jersey. Cancellara maintains his lead by a fraction of a second but the Astana team does get to celebrate its first stage win in the Tour de France.

The winner of the time trial in Monaco has managed to defend his advantage in the general classification… but only just. Fabian Cancellara continues to wear the yellow jersey despite a challenge from Lance Armstrong in Montpellier.

“We have done the maximum today. After this effort we really can be proud that we’ve managed to keep the yellow jersey… at least for one more day. This is a good example of ‘Swiss Timing’. Now I do not know if we will continue to defend; tomorrow we do not know how the stage will be raced. Do we police the escape or not? The most important thing was the reach today with the yellow jersey. We can already start to think about the mountains and now that will be the focus of the team’s strategy.”

The Columbia-HTC squad is a well-drilled unit that knows how to win but in the team time trial, it finished fifth. Could it be that they paid the price for their effort at the end of stage three? “No!” barked an adamant Mark Cavendish who is still in green…

“The middle bit of the course… you could probably do that faster on a road bike. You’ve just got keep the team as close together as possible. So much of the media don’t know what team time trialling is about. You’ve got to ride one to know what it’s like. I was getting questions like, ‘Are you going to struggle?’ For me, a sprinter is going to do better in a team time trial…
“The radio stopped working after about two kilometers so we were on our own. But we’re a pretty drilled team. We look after each other really well. And it’s about looking after each other. It’s not an individual, it’s a team of nine. And whoever gets the best out of everyone, gets the best result. We gave one hundred per cent. We didn’t win but we have to be happy.”

Less than a second separates the seven-time champion from the yellow jersey in his Tour de France comeback. Lance Armstrong was part of a dominant team of champions in stage four; Astana’s nine – Armstrong, Contador, Kloden, Leipheimer, Muravyev, Paulinho, Popovych, Rast, Zubeldia – all put in a stunning performance to claim first in the team time trial. Lance didn’t shy away from the media after the stage either, answering questions in French and English and posing for photos with friend and Tour guest Ben Stiller…

“I wanted to be one of the strongest in the race. I think that I am. I may not be strong enough to win but I think somebody on this team will win. I know the race and I understand what it’s all about. Yesterday we saw a critical point in the race. It’s the Tour and I know the Tour; I know how to race it and how to be in the peloton… so sometimes it pays to be old and experienced and not young and strong. We’ll see what happens from here but I’ll take it day by day.
“I don’t think it’s worth trying something in the next day or so. There are no time bonuses and, of course, it’s still going to be windy. It’s a tricky stage around Perpignan and that region so we’re going to have to be careful and pay attention. You never know what’s going to happen. But I don’t think the jersey changes hands until Andorra.
“During the race I started to think we might be able to take [the yellow jersey] and I thought, ‘That’s kinda cool. It’s a good story…’ but we did what we could. What else are you going to do? [Saxo Bank] came back a little bit at the end and rode strong. That’s cycling. It’s what happens. I think we finished the race knowing we can look at each other and say, ‘We did our best!’ They deserve to keep it.
“The most important thing is that we won the stage, and we put time into our main rivals. Before the start, I told Alberto, ‘Listen, it doesn’t matter if we win but it’s important that we take minutes out of guys like Evans and Sastre and Menchov.’ I think we were fairly successful when it came to doing that. The team time counts for individual time and I wouldn’t want to be two minutes behind right now.”