Lance Armstrong just misses yellow jersey, trails Tour by less than second after time trial

Armstrong less than second off Tour de France lead

MONTPELLIER, France — Over two days, Lance Armstrong showed his rivals that his desire to lead his teammates to victory was very much alive after nearly four years in retirement.

The seven-time Tour de France winner, who had been written off by most of the cycling experts before the race started last week in Monaco, almost took the yellow leader’s jersey 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 and only trails race leader Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland by a few hundredths of second.

“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 24.2-mile ride in and around Montpellier. That was 18 seconds better than Garmin, with Saxo Bank third, 40 seconds back.

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 — the results calculated to the thousandth of a second.

“That’s Swiss timing,” Cancellara said, laughing. “Time is on my side.”

On roads sometimes very tight on the outskirts of Montpellier, Armstrong took long relays and was always in front to guide his teammates when the course was dangerous. It was reminiscent of Armstrong’s dominance in the team time trial with the US Postal and Discovery Channel teams for the last three years of his run of victories from 1999 to 2005.

“Well, what can I say? The team was simply awesome today. Consistent, fluid, mistake-free. We love this event (TTT) and are stoked to win,” Armstrong said on his Twitter account. “Popo and Klodi were on fire,” he said, referring to teammates Yaroslav Popovych of Ukraine, and German Andreas Kloeden. “And they might need to repair the pavement on the sections where Alberto was pulling.”

Even Contador, who is rumored to have a dicey relationship with Armstrong, was rejoicing.

“I think that today we have to be very, very happy. We have distanced enough riders like (Carlos) Sastre, (Cadel) Evans, (Denis) Menchov and even the Schlecks (Andy and Frank). It’s a pity we missed the yellow jersey. You always like to have it, especially Lance, with all it means for him.”

Astana handed a blow to several title hopefuls. Defending champion Sastre is 2:44 back; two-time runner-up Evans, whose team didn’t preview the time trial and had a catastrophic run marred by a crash, is 2:59 behind, and Menchov is 3:52 back.

“OK it’s nice to win the stage, but I think today, the Tour de France is finished for some riders — and we won’t go into names …”, said Armstrong. “With no disrespect, it’s difficult to make up that time,” he said.

With Evans and Sastre likely out of contention, the rivalry of Armstrong and the 26-year old Contador, who won the 2007 Tour, is set to reach a new peak in the daunting Pyrenean summits.

Armstrong will face a tough test in the mountains. After Friday’s trek between Barcelona and Arcalis — the most demanding Pyrenean stage with a grueling final ascent — Armstrong’s rivals will know if the Texan still has the legs to wax like in his heyday. And Contador, the best climber in the world, will see if he still has a chance to knock Armstrong from his throne, at least within the Astana team.

During the team time trial, the two men collaborated well and shared a common objective.

“My point was to Alberto, ‘Look, let’s ride perfect, and make this race almost impossible to win for others,’” he said. “And I think we can say that we accomplished that.”

Associated Press Writer Jamey Keaten contributed to this report.