DISCOVERY CHANNEL! Armstrong is in yellow after the fastest Tour team time trial in history.
It came right down to the wire with an amazing finish: CSC had the lead by two seconds at the final checkpoint, but Discovery was accelerating throughout. CSC would have had to do the last two kilometers in two minutes to keep the yellow jersey, but that ambition and the stage win were lost when Zabriskie crashed with 1.5km to go. T-Mobile was also in the mix: Discovery and T-Mobile were matching each other's times through the first two checkpoints by a second. T-Mobile had posted the fastest time on the day, but Discovery was much faster than the on the last segment and finished 0'36" ahead (which will get reduced to 0'30" due to the recently new kooky Team Time Trial rules).
Armstrong has a 0'55" lead in the overall -- on his own teammate Hincapie. American Bobby Julich is sitting in 4th place at 1'07" back, but the nearest serious competitor is Vino at 1'21" back. Basso and Ullrich are both about a minute and a half back, 1'26" and 1'36" respectively.
1 Discovery Channel Team 1.10.39 (57.324 km/h)
2 Team CSC 0.02
3 T-Mobile Team 0.36
- Stage 4 Photo Gallery (Graham Watson)
- Stage 4 Summary (VeloNews)
- Stage 4 Results (CyclingNews)
- Stage 3/4 Jambon Report (Daily Peloton)
- Stage 4 Live Report (Daily Peloton)
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67.5km team time trial
Prediction: Discovery #1, CSC #2
Discovery and CSC are a head above the other teams out there. CSC is leading the overall classification -- given those time gaps are based on the results of the stage 1 individual time trial, CSC may have a slight advantage. However, Discovery trains hard for this one, so they're my pick.
If Discovery wins today Armstrong will be in yellow, which will be a big difference going into the first mountain stages -- Armstrong would have to defend the jersey from the first slopes on.
T-Mobile is starting.
Phonak is off and Discovery is coming up to the platform.
Discovery is launched.
CSC is off.
Gerolsteiner went through their check in 8th, which doesn't bode well for Levi Leipheimer. Libery Seguros, on the other hand, has set the second best time at their check which is good for Heras.
Discovery went through second at their time check. T-Mobile went through firstat their time check.
CSC went through first at their time check, 9 seconds faster than Discovery. Discovery and T-Mobile had the same time through the first check, so T-Mobile must have accelerated a bit over the next leg.
Illes Balears has taken the top time on the day so far, but they had to drop four of their riders to do it.
Credit Agricole now has the best time on the day.
Phonak is accelerating a bit as well, moving up to 3rd in their time check (up from 8th in the previous).
Liberty Seguros has easily beat the best time on the day by almost a minute. This is already the fastest team trial in TdF history.
Discovery has nicked T-Mobile's best time through the second time check. T-Mobile and Disco are marking each other pedal for pedal.
CSC came through the next time check in first again, though their lead has dropped from 15 seconds to 6 seconds.
T-Mobile is in with the best time of 1:11:14. It'll be hard for Disco to be beat that by much.
Phonak is hemorraging riders. They're down to six and the sixth is barely tacked on.
Gerolsteiner came in fifth on the day. No yellow for Leipheimer it would seem.
Phonak is coming in with only five riders. They come in third so far on the day at 1:12:10.
CSC has dropped a rider (Lombardi)
Disco is powering in. They look like they're gonna beat T-Mobile's best time....
Discovery crosses in 1:10:39! Blistering!
CSC still has a two second lead going into the final check -- it's gonna be a close finish.
2km to go and CSC has to finish in two minutes. With the technical turns on the second to last kilo it's not gonna happen.
Zabriskie is down! He looks pretty hurt.
Discovery wins by two seconds! CSC finishes in 1:10:41.
Zabriskie is a face of disappointment but he makes it across the finish line.
