After yesterday's heroics by Lance Armstrong to get into the split in the peloton and shadow the yellow jersey holder (Fabian Cancellera), he and his Astana team failed by a few hundredths of a second to put Armstong back in the Maillot Jaune at his third coming in the tour.
In four stages so far the tour hasn't warmed up but gone to white hot immediately and it is still a few days away from the mountain stages that will define this year's tour and will probably determine the winner with only one more time trial stage to go. Sometimes a sporting event fails to live up to its billing but this Tour de France is not one of those events. Much of the interest before the race centred on the return of Armstrong to the tour for the first time since 2005 and the fact that he was teamed with Alberto Contador the 2007 winner who did not participate in the event last year.
First blood went to Contador with his second place finish in the initial time-trial with Armstong only tenth overall and fourth amongst his team. Sunday's stage panned out as expected with it coming down to a sprint and a superb win by Briton Mark Cavendish placing him in the Green Jersey for the most consistent finisher.
Yesterday (Monday) produced the special brand of excitement that only the Tour de France can produce when after an initial break-away had been gathered up the peloton split into two a few kilometres before the finish led by Cavendish's Columbia team with Cancellera making the break along with Armstrong but most of the remainder of Armstrong's Astana team missed the break and this allowed him to move up to third position overall and become the best placed of his team - Cavendish won the stage securing an even firmer grip on his green jersey. This was a move that either hinted of Armstrong's excellent race-craft or more sinisterly the breaking up of the team that was supposed to be supporting Contador.
Whatever was happening would soon become apparent today with the return of the team-trial to the Tour for the first time since Armstrong last rode and it would indicate if all of the big names in the Astana team could work as a team. This they surely could and for most of the race whilst it was assured they would win the stage it was not so sure that Armstrong would take the coveted Maillot Jaune. This was because Cancellera was not going to give it up easily and literally single handedly led his team throughout the 25 mile stage and whilst Armstrong did more than his fair share driving his team they fell agonisingly short by a few hundredths of a second.
This now means that Astana have the second to fifth placed riders plus the seventh placed, and so any more little breaks like that seen yesterday could see anyone of them in yellow by the time the race reaches the mountains at the weekend, when no doubt it will become apparent if Armstrong is destined for another yellow jersey or really can only act as a faithful lieutenant to Contador or another of his team mates.
Can't wait till tomorrow and hopefully cheer on another Cavendish win.
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