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The fourth day of the 92nd Tour de France was one of exultation for Lance Armstrong and one of heartbreak for fellow American Dave Zabriskie. The 67.5km team time trial provided another trademark Armstrong moment as he surged into the maillot jaune with panache after his Discovery Channel team won the stage from Tours to Blois in record speed. “It’s always good to have the jersey,” said Armstrong, who led his team across the line with an emphatic bike stab. “It feels nice to win.” For Zabriskie, his dream run in yellow ended in nightmarish fashion. The 26-year-old crashed just 1.5km short

Results - Stage 4 - Team Time Trial1. Discovery Channel Team 67.5km in 1:10:39 (57.324kph)2. Team CSC, 00:023. T-Mobile Team, 00:354. Liberty Seguros - Wurth Team, 00:535. Phonak Hearing Systems, 01:316. Credit Agricole, 01:417. Illes Balears-Caisse D Epargne, 02:058. Gerolsteiner, 02:059. Fassa Bortolo, 02:1910. Liquigas - Bianchi, 02:26 11. Davitamon - Lotto, 02:3212. Rabobank, 02:4813. Domina Vacanze, 03:0414. Quick Step - Innergetic, 03:0515. Bouygues Telecom, 03:0816. Euskaltel - Euskadi, 03:5917. Lampre - Caffita, 04:0918. Cofidis Credit Par Telephone, 04:2819. Francaise Des Jeux,

Near perfection: All nine Discovery reached the finish together.

“Tour de France. Tour de France. Tour de France.” –Kraftwerk These days it takes little more than the first few notes of a trashy Euro techno beat to stoke the inner cycling fire. That’s right, folks, the best three weeks of the year have begun. Of course, the athletes have been preparing for these three weeks the entire year, but it’s the last-minute preparations that had me asking some questions. First, there is Lance’s pre-race prep, which, judging by this photo, included some movie-star impersonations. Whaddya think - is he doing Bogey or the Duke? Then there is Jan Ullrich’s

T-Mobile happy with TTT effort

Considering the way things came out during the opening time trial of the Tour de France last Saturday, the stage 4 team time trial could could have been much worse for the T-Mobile squad on Tuesday. Not only had Jan Ullrich lost 68 seconds to Lance Armstrong in the Stage 1 time trial in Fromentine; no fewer than six of the nine T-Mobile riders, who had each started immediately before a Discovery man, had been reeled in by their pursuers over the course of the 19-kilometer Tour opener. It was, to say the least, a dismal prospect for an event, in which T-Mobile had hoped to set the stage for

Basso's custom crank

With more than 80 riders now at least five minutes behind new race leader Lance Armstrong, there’s a good chance that a breakaway will succeed Wednesday on stage 5 of the Tour de France. That’s the theory, but in a year when the opportunities for field sprints are limited the fast men should again prevail. Going into this 183km stage, QuickStep’s Tom Boonen is two for two in the field sprints, partly thanks to his main rival, Robbie McEwen of Davitamon-Lotto, making a hash of his sprint on stages 2 and 3. McEwen is unlikely to make a mistake a third time running, so expect a much tighter

Armstrong's bars

Dekker rode himself into the climber's jersey

Course: Most of this fairly long stage (212.5km) takes the back roads of the Vendée region before heading northeast to the Loire Valley. The race passes some of the region’s famed châteaux, including the 11th century Chinon and 16th century Azay-le-Rideau. The final 30km are full of twists and turns until reaching the 3km-long Avenue de Grammont, which hosts the finish of theParis-Tours classic every fall. History: Despite its permanent place in classics history, the town of Tours has seen only six Tour stage finishes. The last was in 2000, when Dutchman Leon Van Bon brought home a small

The day's escape formed up at 27km

It was Tom Boonen's day at the 2005 Tour de France -again. Still, even after the Belgian sprinter blasted away his rivals to win the 212.5km third stage from La Chataignerie to Tours in the Loire Valley, his back-to-back victory was not the talk of the Tour. Instead, it was the fireworks that erupted between two of the tightly packed speeding bunch he left in his wake - Australians Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Davitamon) and Stuart O'Grady (Cofidis), who were third and fourth across the line behind Boonen and Austrian Peter Wrölich (Gerolsteiner). While Boonen had space to rent behind him

CSC did what it had to to protect their jersey

STAGE 3 RESULTS1. Tom Boonen (B), Quickstep, 4:36:092. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:003. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 00:004. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 00:005. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 00:006. Robert FÖrster (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:007. Magnus Backstedt (Swe), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:008. Anthony Geslin (F), Bouygues Telecom, 00:009. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:0010. Angelo Furlan (I), Domina Vacanze, 00:00 11. Isaac Galvez (Sp), Illes Balears, 00:0012. Guido Trenti (USA), Quickstep, 00:0013. Gianluca Bortolami (I), Lampre, 00:0014. Luciano Pagliarini

Lotto in pursuit

Floyd Landis was one of Lance Armstrong’s strongest teammates last year, but now he’s on the Texan’s enemies list as he lines up as one of the team leaders with Phonak. Landis, 29, had an acrimonious split with Armstrong after leaving Discovery Channel last fall to take his own chances as a team leader with Phonak. “The most critical reason for my decision to leave Postal was for my own opportunities,” Landis told reporters before the start. “If I was here for Discovery, I would be working for Lance and that would be it. So I decided it was now or never.” Once close teammates during

Boonen wins again

Our guy Casey Gibson found himself celebrating the Fourth of July by getting caught in traffic on Monday, but he still managed to send a few photos rocketing back to the land of the free.

... but no ten-day run for Voeckler this year.

Quite a day, today… I’ve finished in Tours before – Paris-Tours a few times, for example – and I really like this finish: Wide open streets and lots of room to fight out the sprint. It’s just things didn’t quite work out like we had planned. My job today was supposed to be lead-out man for (Luciano) Pagliarini, but coming into to Tours, we didn’t actually find each other in the peloton. That’s not all that unusual, especially when things are as chaotic as they are in this Tour. There really is no single team keeping things under control in the sprints. Without Petacchi here, Fassa Bortolo

Fedrigo and the rest of the Bouyges Telecom crew did what they could...

Boonen wins his second consecutive stage

McEwen gets a little too physical with O'Grady

Zabriskie in yellow, anticipating Tuesday's team time trial

Anyone else seeing spots before their eyes?

Another religious experience entirely

Rolling along

'War of the Worlds' extras? Nah, just French TV

Dekker, going up

Julich, too

Boonen blows 'em away . . .

Crunching the numbers

. . . and here's what he did the job with

Why is Voeckler smiling? The polka-dot jersey may have something to do with it . . .

. . . or maybe it was something (or someone) else

Lance has a colorful jersey of his own, though it's not his favorite color

That one still belongs to Zabriskie

Four minutes, but little more. Nonetheless, the break lasted for nearly 150km.

Course: After heading out for 12km to the Atlantic coast, the course parallels the seashore for the next 93km, passing through yachting towns like Les Sables-d’Olonne. On leaving Aiguillon-sur- Mer, the final 75km returns inland, often on narrow, twisting back roads, dipping in and out of low valleys. Crashes are a high risk on the run-in to the town of Les Essarts (population: 5100), where there is a short finishing straight. History: A stage has never finished at Les Essarts. When the Vendée region last hosted the opening stages six years ago, a similar stage finished in Challans, where

Another day in yellow

The Dave Zabriskie Show came to the Tour de France on Sunday, momentarily diverting the cameras away from Lance Armstrong and the other big stars in the Tour’s stage 2. And the European media, getting their first taste of Dave Z’s quirky sense of humor, didn’t know quite what to make of it — especially when he dead-panned to French television on how his first day went in the yellow jersey. “How did I spend it? Racing bikes,” said the 26-year-old CSC rider said with a sardonic smile. Zabriskie enjoyed the view from the front of the peloton during most of Sunday’s 181.5km stage across

Boonen wants the points jersey this year.

Dave Zabriskie didn’t quite know what to make of all the fuss. Sure, he became just the third American to wear the yellow jersey in Tour de France history and he beat six-time Tour champ Lance Armstrong to do it, but after all, it’s just a bike race. “I got a massage, had dinner, read a little, then went to sleep,” was how Zabriskie described his first evening in yellow. “Yeah, we had a little champagne.” Sunday morning, Zabriskie got the full yellow-jersey treatment, with dozens of photographers and reporters waiting outside the team bus. Team CSC riders huddled inside the bus for

Zabriskie fields questions from the press.

Stage 2 Results1. Tom Boonen (B), Quickstep, 3:51:312. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:003. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:004. Stuart O’Grady (Aus), Cofidis, 00:005. Luciano Pagliarini (BRA), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:006. Juan Antonio Flecha (Sp), Fassa Bortolo, 00:007. Peter Wrolich (A), Gerolsteiner, 00:008. Pineau Jérôme (F), Bouygues Telecom, 00:009. Baden Cooke (Aus), Francaise des Jeux, 00:0010. Allan Davis (Aus), Liberty Seguros, 00:00 11. Manuel Quinziato (I), Saunier Duval, 00:0012. Robert Hunter (RSA), Phonak, 00:0013. Inaki Isasi (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 00:0014.

CSC tooks its leadership duties seriously

Whether your preference is for Tom Boonen's legs or a podium girl's smile, our man Casey Gibson was on the job in France on Sunday, collecting images of the 2005 Tour. Here's what he sent home.

Armstrong had the points jersey on Sunday.

Tom Boonen may have won this Tour’s first ferocious sprint on Sunday, but don’t expect the tall Belgian to continue winning stages this week in the manner perfected by Mario Cipollini in the 1990s and Alessandro Petacchi in more recent years. That’s because Boonen won the stage into Les Essarts despite not having an organized lead-out train. The team that did its best to set up a strong paceline on the run-in was Baden Cooke’s Française des Jeux squad; but the French team’s efforts fell far short of guiding Cooke into a winning position. The twisting run-in and a sharp left turn into a

LivingStrong in the Vendée

Good things take a long time comingSix years after Matt White was first denied his chance to ride in the Tour de France, the Australian finally made it to the start line of the world's biggest bike race - and he’s done so in one piece. For once White didn't crash. Neither was he left off the team. Nor was his team excluded from the three-week race. In fact, White finished stage one - a 19km time trial from Fromentine to Noirmoutier in 101st place at 2:32 behind American winner, David Zabriskie (CSC). He finished Sunday by placing 153rd in the Tour’s second stage, the 181km leg

The chase was steady, but not frantic

So, here we are again. The Tour kicked off yesterday with what would normally be a perfect time-trial course for a guy like me: a pan-flat, straight shot to the finish line. But it takes me a few days to “find my legs” in a big tour, and I had what you could only call a day that wasn’t all that bad, but wasn’t all that great either. It’s difficult for me, usually, the first few days. You spend so much time getting ready, training like mad, and then you have a couple of days that throw you off a bit, with travel, medical controls, the presentation and all. It’s tough to get back into the

Zabriskie had plenty of support around him

Boonen celebrates

Zabriskie en route to victory

Prof7

Photo Files - TDF05

Didi by

Armstrong overhauls Ullrich

Tourmalet

Zabriskie dons the first yellow jersey of the 2005 Tour

Photo Files - TDF05

Vinokourov may be T-Mobile's leader, after all.

Photo Files - TDF05

Landis expanded the U.S. presence in the top 10, crossing sixth

Photo Files - TDF05

Course: Starting from the ferry port at Fromentine, this opening time trial has a few twists and turns in the first 2km, then heads up a curving concrete bridge to the course high point 114 feet above the narrow strait between the mainland and the island of Noirmoutier. The next 11km is on a flat divided highway before a few final curves and turns into Noirmoutier town. History: The last time there was a comparable start to the Tour was at Futuroscope in 2000, when the traditional 8km-or-shorter prologue was replaced by a rolling 16.5km TT. That time, a youthful David Millar surprised Lance

Hincapie rides into fourth place

Viaduc de Millau

Back in 1965, the renowned French film director Louis Malle made a superb documentary on the Tour de France, titled “Pour un Maillot Jaune” (“For a Yellow Jersey”). There was no commentary to the film. Malle used the sounds and sights of the Tour, and inserted a dramatic soundtrack that switched between total silence and haunting, throbbing techno music. It was not a story of the race. The race told its own story, and produced a totally unexpected winner, an Italian who was a last-minute replacement and riding his first Tour. His name: Felice Gimondi. Forty years later, there could again be

Horner finished more than two minutes off of Zabriskie's pace

Foto file

Leipheimer

Noirmoutier, France, July 2 (AFP) - Bradley McGee might be engaged in his own battle to boost his overall performance on the Tour de France but that has not stopped him tipping Michael Rogers to become the first Australian winner of the yellow jersey in Paris. McGee, who won the prologue at the 2003 Tour for his Francaise des Jeux team, has spent the last few campaigns in July helping teammate Baden Cooke in the bunch sprints. But after a long, hard 10 months year of climbing in the mountains in a bid to better prepare himself for this year's race, the 29-year-old New South Wales rider