The American Lance Armstrong and the Spanish Alberto Contador tightened his options on the overall Tour de France victory after the Astana team in the time trial of the fourth stage on Tuesday in Montpellier, where Fabian Cancellara retained the lead.
The Swiss Saxo Bank continues to dress in yellow, but he saw Armstrong was matched to the times in general and only maintained its top position thanks to its improved performance in the opening time trial in Monaco, which left him with a few hundredths of a second advantage.
"Keep the gold mesh in these circumstances is more than incredible. This is the precise chronometric Switzerland (joked). We gave the maximum, I am very grateful to my team mates with whom I have a good 'feeling' (...) We respect our slogans, we saw that the last miles were hard at high speed, we had the block and concentracioón and calm, "the Swiss.
The Texan, seven-time Tour champion, was leading in virtually solitary in the absence of 8.5 kilometers to the final when his team at Saxo Bank in excess of 41 seconds on Cancellara, but that margin was reduced to forty at the finish.
"It was a very difficult, with many curves and climbs (...) It is true that disappointed losing the yellow mesh milliseconds, but at home I have many of them. Tselinograd The best was at the stage and there is nothing to say, "said the American.
Behind the two men ahead in the overall figure Contador, big favorite to get to Paris in yellow, nineteen seconds of the first position.
On the stage, Tselinograd seconds exceeded eighteen and forty Garmin to Saxo Bank. The Italian Liquigas team, the Czech Roman Kreuziger, finished fourth in the stage, 58 seconds, just ahead of Columbia's Mark Cavendish, to 59 units.
Cervelo, the current champion of the 'Grande Boucle', the Spanish Carlos Sastre lost over a minute and a half with respect to Tselinograd, after closing the day at the route chosen west of Montpellier.
The other candidates for the final triumph, the Australian Cadel Evans (Silence), second in the Tour the last two editions, is the big loser of the day, to yield two minutes and 35 seconds compared to Armstrong and Contador.
Russian Denis Menchov, winner of the Giro d'Italia in May, also experienced a bad day with Rabobank, finishing in two minutes and twenty seconds of the winning group. The day was also marked by several crashes, including the Italian world champion Alessandro Ballan.
On Wednesday, the fifth stage of the Tour will travel 196.5 km between Le Cap d'Agde and Perpignan.
