Just four stages in, the 2009 Tour is rife with drama—thankfully, the positive kind. After a 39-kilometer team time trial around Montpellier, the right to wear the yellow jersey came down to a fraction of a second.
A winning effort by Astana was just enough to put Lance Armstrong basically even with Fabian Cancellara in the overall classification, but not enough for Armstrong to surpass the Swiss rider. Cancellara spent much of the time at the front during Team Saxo Bank's ride and remains in yellow by less than a second.
Garmin-Slipstream, despite only having five riders for the majority of the course, finished just 18 seconds behind Astana. A disappointing ride by Cadel Evans's Silence-Lotto team dropped him to 35th overall, 2:59 back from the yellow jersey.
Garmin-Slipstream starts the team time trial in Montpellier.
Photo: Bruce Hildenbrand/Active.com
Hildenbrand: Team Astana Wins TTT; Lance Just Misses Yellow Jersey
Stage 4 Results
- Astana – 46:29
- Garmin-Slipstream +00:18
- Team Saxo Bank +00:40
- Liquigas +00:58
- Team Columbia-HTC +00:59
- Team Katusha +01:23
- Caisse d’Epargne +01:29
- Cervelo TestTeam +01:37
- Ag2r-La Mondiale +01:48
- Euskaltel-Euskadi +02:09
Overall Classification
- Fabian Cancellara – Team Saxo Bank – 10:38:07
- Lance Armstrong – Astana +00:00
- Alberto Contador – Astana +00:19
- Andreas Kloden – Astana +00:23
- Levi Leipheimer – Astana +00:31
Click Here for More Overall Standings and Jersey Leaders
39K (24.2 miles) Team Time Trial
• The last time the TTT was held in a Tour was 2005, when it was won by the Discovery Channel team
• Montpellier is a 28-time stage town
• There are no sprint points or mountain passes in this stage
Image courtesy of www.letour.com
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