Astana United, But Cancellara Defends - 96th Tour de France Stage 4

Graham Watson must have been delighted to see "The Big Blue Train," albeit made up of different pieces and sporting a lighter shade of blue, take full flight once again.

On a short and technical course that demanded teams to ride unrelentingly, Team Astana lived up to its hype and took the Stage 4 Team Time Trial in Montpellier by 18 seconds over a depleted, but game Garmin-Slipstream squad. Bjarne Riis' Team Saxo Bank would slot into third 40 seconds back.

Driven by one of the last remaining threads to those celebrated US Postal Service teams, Lance Armstrong did what he had done so many times before; seize the mantle of leadership. The 37-year old Texan, motivated by the very real possibility of donning his first “Mellow Johnny” in four years, took some massive pulls upfront in an attempt to overcome a 40 second gap to Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank).


To his credit, Cancellara, decked out in yellow, would fight the Astana machine tooth and nail. Heading up his own Saxo Bank team to the line, Cancellara would hold onto the yellow leader’s jersey by virtue of a count back.

Any speculation of some infighting or discord among Astana ‘s leaders should hopefully have been put to rest by its unified, concerted, and precise effort.

Garmin 5 – Easy As 1, 2, 3
Somewhat overshadowed by the monstrous, but predictable effort by Team Astana was the show put on by the Garmin 5: David Zabriskie, Bradley Wiggins, David Millar, Danny Pate, and Christian Vande Velde. Needing the minimum of five riders to cross the line to record a time, the pared down, but streamlined Team Garmin-Slipstream narrowly missed out on taking another grand tour team time trial.


A Bit of Snarkiness
Apparently BBOX Bouygues Telecom is French for Michael Rasmussen...



Results After Stage 4
1. Astana
2. Garmin - Slipstream
3. Team Saxo Bank

General Classification After Stage 4
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank
2. Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana
3. Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
4. Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana
5. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana
6. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream
7. Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa) Astana
8. Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC
9. David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
10. David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream

Jersey Leader's After Stage 4
Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank


Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC


Jussi Veikkanen (Fin) Francaise Des Jeux


Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC


Next: Stage 5 - Le Cap d'Agde to Perpignan (196.5km)
Another possible wind swept day by the coast.