Tour de France - Stage 4 - The Day of Truth

The best team ever: USPS-Berry Floor powers to win in Team Time Trial - Armstrong takes Maillot Jaune

As a double-barreled low pressure area blew across northern France Wednesday afternoon, the rain poured, the wind blew and the black clouds of the alleged curse of the sixth Tour de France victory swirled above the USPS-Berry Floor team bus in Arras, but when their nine riders rolled out of Cambrai bound for Arras 64.5km away, it soon seemed like Lance Armstrong's team was blessed. The rain and wind let up and the Postal Blue Train rolled across the flat wheat fields like a TGV towards its second consecutive Tour de France Team Time Trial win. The powerful victory sent a message through the Tour peloton after only four stages that more than ever, Lance Armstrong is the man to beat, as the Texan earned his 60th day in the Maillot Jaune tomorrow, equalling Miguel Indurain in Tour de France history.

A clearly delighted Armstrong said in Arras after Stage Four that "The team was incredible today...their rhythm was perfect. We started easy and then after the first time check, we went au bloc, au bloc (all out). We have a really strong team, with rouleurs like Ekimov, like Hincapie, like Padrnos. And also, like Landis and Chechu Rubiera who are a lot better this year. Today, it was very critical to start last so we could ride off the other teams time splits. We started a little slow, we got behind and I think the guys were a little nervous. You know, that's the sign of a great team...when they get down a little bit, they come back fightin' and we fought hard and look what happened in the finish."

What did happen was that for the second day in a row, Armstrong took time into all his key rivals for the Tour de France win. But if the Tour de France had not imposed new rules limiting the losses by riders that finish with their teams to 3'00", USPS would have broken the Tour wide open today. But Lance accepted this situation like a gentleman and didn't complain. "There's no point in discussing that - it's the rules and I can't change them, we can't change them; we get 0'20 and 0'20 is what it is. I think the only consolation is that when you see (USPS) 1'07 on the next team, at least you have the consolation that you know your team was very strong. You leave with 0'20, but you also leave with the knowledge that you have the best team in the race."

Armstrong and four USPS riders are now sitting atop the general classification this evening, and Lance has 0'37 on key rival Tyler Hamilton (Phonak) and 0'55 on Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile). Ullrich was not disappointed with his performance today, but nor was he delighted. "Our team was strong today and with the weather, we didn't have too many problems. After 20km, we lost 0'30 because we waited for Klöden after a wheel change. Now I'm 0'55 behind Armstrong and I'm not worried, and as we saw in the Tour of Suisse, every second is important. But for me, the Tour is not decided yet."

Hamilton was happy with his team's runner-up spot, but a bit bemused by all the time lost from four flats and a broken handlebar for Santi Gonzalez that needed a bike change. "I'm happy with the way the team rode today - they were very strong and we wanted to win. So I'm disappointed for them we had so many problems," explained the Man from Marblehead after Stage 4.

Lance Armstrong reflected on the significance of today's win by looking back on the beginning of his cycling career 15 years ago. "Ever since I was a Junior, the TTT was the event I did. It's always been my favourite event because it's a team event. My first (major) experience in cycling was the (1989) Jr. World Championships TTT in Moscow. At the time, it was an amazing event for me...very hard, but also an event that was very special. If you put together the four strongest guys in the world, they don't always win. And that, to me, is something special. You could put together four guys who are less strong, but if they work well together, they took the proper pulls, they did much better. And that always struck me as something unique in cycling."

Talking about his pro TTT experiences, Armstrong continued his nostalgic vibe, saying "(Motorola) was always close when we did (the TTT) in the Tour de France, we were always close, and I was always so upset that we never won and finally to win the last two years in a row...last year, that was one of the highlights, if not THE highlight of my Tour de France was to win the TTT. This year, the team was even better. They started slow, but when we started going, it was really unbelievable. I was just smiling on the bike. It was like a dream."

When he donned the cherished yellow tunic today in Arras, it was is Armstrong's 60th time to wear the Maillot Jaune, first wearing it after the TDF prologue in 1999. And Lance's 60th equalled Miguel Indurain's Maillot Jaune total in Tour history. Admittedly, this was on the American's mind today. "I knew that if we won the TTT, I would be in yellow so of course, naturally last night and this morning and during the race, I thought about that. It's amazing to hear the number sixty days; that's two months and I don't really think about those things to be honest. The only Yellow Jersey that matters is the one that the guy wears on the Champs Elysées. But it hits home; it's pretty powerful."

What will the USPS-Berry Floor teams strategy be going forward? Armstrong and Bruyneel don't want the race lead...yet. "We'll see what happens, but our objective isn't to defend the (Maillot Jaune) until the mountains or until Paris (now)", explained Armstrong after Stage 4. "I suspect we'll be willing to give up the jersey to someone else." For now.

After starting first and posting a fast time under light rain, Euskaltel-Euskadi maintained the lead much of the day as the weather worsened. Four teams later, Saeco got within one second and Gibo Simoni fell on the penultimate corner in Arras, but the orange crush of Euskaltel was still on top of the heap. Unfortunately, Gibo's glissade cost him much more than the 7 seconds he finished behind his teammates, as due to the new TTT rules he was awarded his actual finish time, rather than the one allocated according to the team's placing. In effect, Simoni lost 1'12 instead of 0'07 because of this.

Perhaps as a celebration of the Navarre, Spain based Illes Balears-Banesto squad's special feast day of Sant Firmin, it was three quarters of an hour later when they blazed across the finish line 1'20 faster than Euskaltel to take the lead. The Balears boys stayed on top as team after team tried to topple them. Neither Spanish rival Liberty Seguros nor Jan Ullrich's T-Mobile squad could beat the Balears team until Phonak came across the line. Despite four flats and a broken handlebar that needed a bike change, Tyler Hamilton's gutsy squad, down to five riders by the end of the 64.5km TTT finished 0'07 ahead of Balears to take the lead.

Next with a shot at the top was CSC, but with crashes and punctures galore, despite their major horsepower and superb double paceline technique, Bjarne Riis's squad came up short in fifth, 0'27 behind Ullrich's T-Mobile team. It wasn't so pretty for Carlos Sastre and Andrea Peron, who crossed the line 3 seconds behind their teammates but because of the crazy TTT rules ended up losing 1'49 to Armstrong instead of 0'50!

Next to last to ride today, Fassa Bortolo would have been 10th but for two untimely penalties that cost them 2'00. First off, they had lost a major motor in Marco Velo, who abandoned yesterday with a broken collarbone. Secondly, after a flat by Kim Kirchen, a judge penalized them 1'00 for too much time drafting the team car to return to the team. Fassa's third strike today was a strange penalty for pushing between riders. In the later stages of today's race, Fassa's top placed GC rider Cancellara started to miss pulls to save his strength. Sitting at the back of the line, he pushed a few riders back into the line, but the judge decided that this technique deserved another 1'00 penalty.

Finally it was USPS-Berry Floor's time to go and did they ever. Only fifth at the first time check after 19 km, the Blue Train rolled into Arras in the lead again, winning the stage by 1'07" over Phonak and putting Armstrong in the Maillot Jaune once again.

Stage 5 - July 8: Amiens-Chartres, 202.5km Thursday's long, flat stage across the plains west of Paris through Vexin and Yvellines and finally through le Beauce should be under cool, grey skies with a possibility of rain as the afternoon continues. With the towering spire of Chartres famous gothic cathedral piercing the horizon, the riders will have a 500m sprint on the rue Louis-Legay to win the first ever Tour de France stage in Chartres.

Christophe Ena
Floyd Landis of The U.S. leads his US Postal Service teammates as they pedal under the rain during the 4th stage of the Tour de France.

Peter Dejong
US Postal Service team leader and five-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, of Austin, Texas, 4th from left, rides with his teammates as they pedal under the rain outside the village of Bancourt.

Paolo Cocco
Tyler on Tour : US Tyler Hamilton (Phonak/Swi) stretches as he rides with his teammates during the team time trial in the fourth stage.

Sebastien Berda
US Lance Armstrong(R) and his teammate George Hincapie congratulate each other as they finish to fourth stage to win the first team time trial of the 91st Tour de France.

From Paul Sherwen, former Tour rider and now commentator:

Stage 4 - Team Time Trial
The team time trial is one of the most testing disciplines in the sport, and today US Postal Service showed they have become masters of it. They are one of the few teams that take the time and money to invest into this event to make sure that they have every chance of winning.

Although they had a slow start and were 37 seconds behind the Spanish leaders, Iles Baleares, at the first time check they never panicked. As they clicked into their TTT mode they knew that they were riding fast and climbed up into the top spot by the next time check.

From there, they never looked back and lead all the way to the finish. To win this event, though, is not a hazard. US Postal Service have to lay down their foundations for victory early in the year, and even before the start of the season.

Over and over, they try different positions and placements of specific riders. They try and find which is the optimum order of effort in the pace line. It can be so important for example for Hincapie to follow Ekimov, rather that other way around. Such a decision can gain a couple of seconds.

During the off-season, Armstrong has allowed his body to be bended, twisted and elongated onto his machine to get him into the most aerodynamic position possible. This corresponds to several seconds per kilometer advantage over his rivals.

That paid off today with a one-minute beating of the second place team -- all part of the plan and the preparation to win this great event for a sixth time. Although he leads now, I wouldn't be surprised if he loses the lead over the next few days, as I feel he doesn't want to the pressure on his team to lead for the next two and a half weeks.

TTT stands for Team Time Trial. Each team rides together over a specified distance.

In the past the team than won the time trial would gain the time they won by. Since the French surrender monkeys knew that U.S. Postal/Armstrong were coming in with by far the strongest team, they changed the rules to minimize the damage U.S. Postal would do to the French and other European teams. If Postal would have won by 5 minutes instead of 1:07 they still would have gained only 20 seconds. Its a French rule designed to make it harder for Armstrong to win. Simple as that.

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