Lance Armstrong pulls on the yellow jersey that signifies the overall leader of the Tour de France after Friday's 19th stage of the race between Issoire and Le Puy-en-Velay, central France. The race concludes Sunday.

LE PUY-EN-VELAY, France - Lance Armstrong faced a dilemma. Should he go flat out for his first individual stage win of the Tour de France this year and risk crashing? Or should he play it safe knowing his rivals were probably too far behind to catch him?

The six-time Tour champion safely negotiated Friday's 19th stage through central France, coasting alongside other top riders behind stage winner Giuseppe Guerini of Italy.

Heading into Saturday's penultimate-day time trial, he held comfortable leads of 2 minutes, 46 seconds over Ivan Basso, 3:46 over Mickael Rasmussen and 5:58 over longtime rival Jan Ullrich. None were likely to make enough time up to prevent him winning a seventh straight title.

But Saturday's 34.5-mile time trial around Saint-Etienne was Armstrong's favorite discipline. He won both clock races last year and routed Ullrich and others with a phenomenal ride on the opening day of this year's Tour, also raced against the clock. He finished second, narrowly behind countryman David Zabriskie, a specialist.

"I haven't won a race this year," Armstrong said. "I forget those things. It's important but it's not everything. If I get second and somebody takes a little bit of time out of me, then that's OK, too."

With the Tour finishing with a largely symbolic parade around the Champs-Elysees on Sunday, Armstrong had one last chance to get a stage win before retiring, customary glass of champagne in hand. His Discovery Channel teammates, George Hincapie and Paolo Savoldelli, each won a stage this year.

Armstrong had not, and the temptation could be irresistible.

"I'm going to ride as hard as I can," he said Friday. "I hope to win, but there's no guarantees in cycling. It's a tough course because it's never flat. It starts climbing almost immediately and there's a lot of technical and tricky downhill sections."

While Armstrong needs only a moderate time to ensure win No. 7, Ullrich was desperate to overtake Rasmussen and avoid finishing off the podium for only the second time in his career.

The German finished second to Bjarne Riis on his debut in 1996, won the following year and was runner-up four more times - three to Armstrong.

Ullrich, whom Armstrong favors to win the Tour next year, needed to make up 2:12 on Denmark's Rasmussen, who is a far better mountain climber than sprinter. He has already secured the red-and-white polka-dot jersey awarded to the best climber in the race, but finished 174th on the opening day time trial, 2:06 behind Ullrich over a far shorter 11.8-mile distance.

"I think he's going good and coming up in form," Armstrong said of Ullrich. "He'll be tough to beat. We'll know for sure at the first time check, but I think he wants to win the stage, too, and show that he's finishing the Tour strong."