So just how did Lance leapfrog the favorite, and his team mate, Contador, to climb to 3rd place on the overall standings today? Well, a mixture of luck (Lance would like you to think that) and the 'gnarly' winds of the Camargue - a desolate, flat delta of land in the south of France.
At 31.2km to go, Team Columbia lifted the pace and Lance was positioned to capitalise. The tempo went up and a gap opened up, and caught on the other side were almost all the favorites. Lance had two team mates with him, and Columbia had their sprinter Cavendish (who took the stage).
Watch it here.
Lance is yellow tomorrow, how? Well, Astana are currently in the lead of the team standings, and you recall, in the prologue, Astana had Contador finish 2nd, Kloden 4th, Leipheimer 6th and Armstrong 10th. That's 4 in the top 10. No other team had as many, no other team had 3 in the top 10, or 2. Astana had 4, a few other teams could manage just one. So on paper Astana look to fairly comfortably win tomorrow's team time trial stage. It was done away with for a few years, and it is fitting that Lance comes back and the team time trial in the same year.
Tomorrow's stage is 39km, a circuitous route around Montpellier, flat with some undulations and rolling terrain in the middle section. Over 43km Lance and his team are likely to not only wipe out the deficit to Cancellara, but possibly gain 30 seconds to a minute over the rest of the field. That should put Lance in yellow very early in the 2009 race. Who could have believed it was possible 6 months ago, or when he broke his collarbone, or one stage 1 of the Tour. In the Tour anything can happen - let's see whether Astana pull their man through.
More: What Armstrong said about Contador, and Contador about Armstrong
Watch it LIVE, here.
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