CYCLING/Tour de France Stage Four: If Lance Armstrong eventually loses out to Tyler Hamilton or Jan Ullrich, and the margin is a handful of seconds, he will have every reason to look back at yesterday's team time-trial and roundly curse the Tour de France's rulebook. For it may be that, because of that inoffensive-looking volume, Armstrong or someone else will finish the 2,000-mile race in the fastest time but not actually win it.
Yesterday the Texan's US Postal Service team were dominant, earning him the yellow jersey and gaining their second successive win in this test of collective strength, yet a complex change in the rules to prevent weaker squads from being disadvantaged meant they were unable to ram that winning margin home. "There is no point in discussing it because that is the rules," said Armstrong, although his team manager Johan Bruyneel had called the change "ridiculous".
"I can't change the rules," Armstrong added. "The only consolation I can take is that when I see we put one minute seven seconds on the next team I know my team is the strongest and the best team in the race."
Indeed, the Postmen put in the ride of their lives to leave Hamilton's green-clad Phonak team trailing. The average speed of 33.5 m.p.h. in a stiff breeze and on roads which varied from flooded to merely soaking meant they were travelling for much of the 40 miles at 40-45 m.p.h., allowing for taking each bend at walking speed.
"Last year winning this stage was the highlight of my Tour de France," said Armstrong, adding that he had fallen in love with the team time-trial as a junior. "This event is something unique in cycling, because you can be four guys who are not so strong but if you work out properly how to take the pulls you can win."
It was a masterly, disciplined performance, and its planning and execution sum up why the Texan has made the Tour his own in the past five years. He covered the course twice in a car as an aide-memoire to go with his previous reconnoissances. Each rider had a pre-set place in the line so that his strength could be used to the full. The blue train sped with the precision of a skein of geese in flight.
Armstrong was lucky, as, by and large, he has also been in the past five Tours. Hamilton's men suffered four punctures in the first 15 miles and for a few miles there was patent indecision among them whether to wait or continue. Phonak is a hearing-aid manufacturer but communication was sadly lacking in the team it sponsors. On a course from Cambrai to Arras via Bapaume, the historical resonances ran deep - the start in the old fortress at the heart of the Hindenburg line, the finish where the Somme offensive began, the straight wind- and rain-lashed roads through towns with hardly a single building more than 80 years old, among cornfields where each hillock seems to have its cemetery of white crosses.
The Tour's first week has often been described as trench warfare, in that great effort is expended but not much ground gained, and in these surroundings it was perhaps appropriate that yesterday there was, if not stalemate, then no decisive breakthrough.
In past years, team time-trials have been decided on actual time taken for the first five riders in each squad to cross the line. That time is added to each man's overall time. This year a bonus system was introduced, with a table of sliding time penalties according to a team's finishing position.
Once the slide rules had been put away it was decreed that Amstrong's team had finished one minute seven seconds ahead of Hamilton's - but their gain was limited to 20 seconds. They were 1:19 faster than Ullrich's T-Mobile men but the German's deficit for the day was cut to 40 seconds. The New Englander and Ullrich are now eighth and 16th - 36 and 55 seconds behind - and can thank their lucky stars.
Guardian Service
Team Time Trial
Cambrai-Arras, 64.5km
1 - US Postal 1hour 12mins 03secs, 2 - Phonak Hearing Systems at 1.07, 3 - Illes Balears-Banesto Santander at 1.15, 4 - T-Mobile Team at 1.19, 5 - Team CSC at 1.46, 6 - Rabobank at 1.53, 7 - Liberty Seguros at 2.25, 8 - Euskaltel-Euskadi at 2.35, 9 - Saeco at 2.36, 10 - Alessio-Bianchi at 2.57, 11 - Quick Step-Davitamon at 3.29, 12 - Credit Agricole at 3.32, 13 - Ag2R Prevoyance at 4.05, 14 - Brioches La Boulangere at 4.17, 15 -Domina Vacanze at 4.22, 16 - Gerolsteiner at 4.36, 17 - Fassa Bortolo at 4.52, 18 - Lotto-Domo at 5.19, 19 - Cofidis Credit Par Telephone at 5.34, 20 - RAGT Semences-MG Rover at 5.37, 21 - Fdjeux.Com at 7.33.
Overall Classification: 1 L Armstrong (US) US Postal 14hours 54mins 53secs, 2 G Hincapie (US) US Postal at 0.10, 3 F Landis (US) US Postal at 0.16, 4 J Azevedo (Por) US Postal at 0.22, 5 JL Rubiera (Spa) US Postal at 0.24, 6 JE Gutierrez (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems at 0.27, 7 V Ekimov (Rus) US Postal at 0.30, 8 T Hamilton (US) Phonak Hearing Systems at 0.36, 9 S Gonzalez (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems at 0.37, 10 B Grabsch (Ger) Phonak Hearing Systems at 0.41. Other: 149 M Scanlon (Ire) Ag2R at 02.30.
King of the mountains (polka-dot jersey): 1. P Bettini (Ita) Quick Step-Davitamon 19 points 2. J Tombak (Est) Confidis 14 3. Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC 9 4.B de Groot (Neth) Rabobank 7 5. J Pineau (Fra) Brioches La Boulangere 3.
Points (green jersey): 1. R McEwen (Aus) Lotto-Domo 93 2. J-P Nazon (Fra) AG2R 85 3. J Kirsipuu (Est) AG2R 74 4. D Hondo (Ger) Gerolsteiner 74 5. T Hushovd (Nor) Credit Agricole 70.
Team: 1. US Postal 42:20:59 2. Phonak 1:13 behind 3. T-Mobile 1:44 4. Team CSC 1:52 5. Illes Balears 1:54.
Under-25 (white jersey): 1 M Kessler (Ger) TMO in 14h 56m 07s, 2 T Boonen (Bel) QSD at 0.48, 3 F Cancellara (Sui) FAS at 01.11, 4 M Scanlon (Ire) A2R at 01.16, 5 M Astarloza (Spa) A2R at 01.25.
Despite the Ag2R team's sluggish performance in yesterday's team time-trial, Mark Scanlon has now moved up two places to an impressive fourth in the best young rider classification. The 23-year-old Sligoman will start today's stage to Chartres just one minute and 16 seconds behind Mattias Kessler of Jan Ullrich's T Mobile team, and may have a chance to narrow that gap over the next few days if he continues to ride as aggressively as has been the case thus far.
Scanlon's Ag2R team were expected to lose time to the big hitters like US Postal yesterday and so it proved, the French squad covering the 64.5 kilometre course four minutes and five seconds slower than Lance Armstrong's well-drilled outfit. New rules governing time gaps mean that Ag2R's 13th place sees their riders lose only two minutes and 10 seconds in the general classification.
Scanlon drops from 28th to 48th in the overall standings, two minutes and 30 seconds off the pace set by Armstrong. However, yesterday's stage result will be of no great concern to the team, who came into the Tour without a race contender and who are consequently more interested in stage wins. They will be trying to add to their fine tally of two victories over the next few days, with Scanlon likely to go on the attack once more as the race winds west towards Brittany. A possible stint in the white jersey of best young rider is an additional motivation and with the general classification now opening up, breakaway groups are likely to be given a little more leeway from this point on.
