MONTPELLIER, France – In a two-day span at the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong proved to his doubters that he’s still a contender for victory despite nearly four years in retirement.
The seven-time champion, written off by most of the cycling experts before the race started in Monaco, went within a whisker of taking the yellow leader’s jersey from Fabian Cancellara after the impressive collective triumph of his Astana team in Tuesday’s team time trial.
A day after surging in a key breakaway to gain valuable time over his rival and teammate Alberto Contador, Armstrong moved up from third place to second overall – he only trails race leader Cancellara of Switzerland by a few hundredths of second following the fourth stage after erasing a 40 second margin.
“That’s the way it is. We did our best. At one point, we thought we had it (the yellow jersey), but if I look back on our performance ... we were as sound as we could be,” Armstrong said. “I have no regrets. I don’t look at that and lose sleep or get disappointed. That’s when they stopped the clock. This is a long race, maybe there’s one (yellow jersey) in my future.”
Astana was timed in 46 minutes, 29 seconds for the 39-kilometer (24.2-mile) ride in and around Montpellier. That was 18 seconds better than Garmin, with Saxo Bank third, 40 seconds behind.
Armstrong and Cancellara share an overall time of 10 hours, 38 minutes, 7 seconds, although the Swiss rider was deemed a fraction ahead. Organizers examined Saturday’s opening time trial in Monaco that was won by Cancellara. Those results were calculated to the thousandth of a second.
“That’s Swiss timing,” Cancellara said, laughing. “Time is on my side.” (AP)