Armstrong is back in contention in France
LA GRANDE-MOTTE, France — Lance Armstrong showed that experience still counts at the Tour de France.
The 37-year old American rider surged to the front to take the right breakaway during Monday's third stage while Alberto Contador and the other favorites were trapped in the peloton.
Armstrong's astute move earned him valuable time and he moved to third place overall while Contador dropped to fourth, 19 seconds behind the Texan. Contador is the 2007 Tour winner and a favorite this year.
Armstrong could take the yellow leader's jersey from Fabian Cancellara as soon as today when a 24.23-mile team time trial is scheduled in Montpellier.
"Never say never," Armstrong said when asked about the possibility of putting on the coveted jersey for the 84th time in his career, four years after his record seventh Tour victory.
Overall, he trails Cancellara by 40 seconds — a tough deficit to erase in the team time trial. The Swiss rider's Saxo Bank team is one of the best in the discipline, along with Armstrong's Astana, Garmin and Columbia.
Among other Tour favorites, two-time runner up Cadel Evans slipped to eighth place overall, 1 minute, 4 seconds behind Cancellara. Andy Schleck is 24th at 1:41, and defending champion Carlos Sastre of Spain is 26th, 1:47 back.
Armstrong has got time to move up now that he leads Contador, who had a 22 second-cushion over Armstrong before Monday's stage won by Mark Cavendish. Armstrong has already said the third week, featuring a long time trial, three mountain stages, and a finish up the daunting Mont Ventoux, will be very hard.
Cavendish earned his second consecutive Tour stage victory and his sixth overall, ahead of Norway's Thor Hushovd and Cyril Lemoine of France after completing the 122.1-mile trek between Marseille and La Grande-Motte in 5 hours, 1 minute, 24 seconds.
Only 29 riders including Armstrong, Cancellara and two other Astana teammates — Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia — handled the tricky conditions.
"Whenever you see a team lined up at the front like that, you have to pay attention," Armstrong said. "You know what the wind's doing, and you see that a turn's coming up, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that you have to go to the front."
Contador was at the wrong place at the wrong time when the breakaway happened. "I was climbing with a teammate and we ended up in no man's land," he said.
Asked about his reaction when he saw that Contador was not with him in front, Armstrong said that he didn't try to gain time over the Spaniard.
"That's not my objective but I turned around and was surprised that there was a split," he said. "On days like this — for good or bad — you can make a difference."
