Astana: The Comeback Is More Complete

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.