Armstrong takes lead as Discovery Channel wins team time trial
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-06 08:28

Lance Armstrong took the overall lead in the Tour de France on Tuesday when his Discovery Channel squad won the team time trial in the fourth stage in record time.

Discovery Channel team rider Lance Armstrong of the US wearing the leader's yellow jersey is seen with pop singer Sheryl Crow of the US after he and his team won the 67.5km (42 miles) fourth stage team time trial from Tours to Blois in the 92nd Tour de France cycling race, July 5, 2005. [Reuters]

The 33-year-old American led his team to victory for the third straight year in the event, clocking 1 hour, 10 minutes, 39 seconds in the 67.5-kilometer (42-mile) trek from Tours to Blois.

The Discovery team set a record for a Tour team time trial with an average speed of 57.32 kph (35.54 mph) _ crushing the previous record of 54.93 kph (34.06 mph).

"The Dream Team," said Armstrong, the six-time Tour champion who has said he will retire after the three-week race. "For me, in the last year, it's special to have a team like this."

American rider David Zabriskie of Team CSC, who started the stage with the leader's yellow jersey, misjudged a turn and crashed in the final two kilometers (1.2 miles). CSC finished second overall _ 2 seconds behind.

Zabriskie, his uniform torn and skin bloody, trailed Armstrong by 1:26 and fell to ninth overall. X-rays on his right knee, elbow, and wrist revealed no broken bones. While he was upset, he was determined to start on Wednesday.

"Losing like that is like a punch in the stomach," said teammate Bobby Julich. "David is terribly upset. He feels responsible for losing the yellow jersey. But I told him not to worry about it and that everything he's done up until now has been really superb."

Armstrong sympathized with his former U.S. Postal Service teammate.

"The (team time trial) is so hard at the end that everybody's on the limit, everybody's a little bit cross-eyed," Armstrong said. "You come into the city, there's a lot of turns and you get the whipping wind and it's easy to make a mistake like that."

With the win, Armstrong will wear the yellow jersey for the 67th time in his Tour career. Discovery teammate George Hincapie is second overall, 55 seconds behind Armstrong.

Now, Armstrong and Discovery will decide whether they want to maintain the race lead or give up the yellow jersey until later in the race, which finishes on July 24 finish in Paris.

"It's always nice to be in yellow," Armstrong said. "There are three or four flat stages coming, so it will not be easy to defend the jersey."

Armstrong heaped praise on his teammates, citing Hincapie in particular, and dedicated the victory to Russian veteran Vyacheslav Ekimov, who is out with an injury.

Under overcast skies, the nine-man teams set off one-by-one through the Loire River valley, known for its majestic medieval and Renaissance castles, and through the town of Amboise, where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last years of his life.

The Discovery teammates took turns leading the single-file pack of riders. Seven of the nine riders rode with Armstrong under U.S. Postal team colors last year, before the change of the lead sponsor.

"It was a very tight matchup as we expected. We kept a good rhythm," Discovery team director Johan Bruyneel said. "We stayed together ... It was a beautiful machine operating."

The riders will now embark on three relatively flat stages toward Germany, which the race enters on Friday, starting with a 183-kilometer (113.46-mile) the fifth stage Wednesday from the Chambord castle to the industrial town of Montargis.

"There's still a lot of racing to go, a lot of nervous days, anything can happen, crashes here, crashes there, especially the stages in the few days which are tricky," Armstrong said.

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