Armstrong Takes the Yellow Jersey

Lance Armstrong demoralized his rivals in the individual time trial on the first day of the Tour de France.

And today, in the Team Trials, the Discovery Channel team might have just sealed Lance’s bid for his 7th consecutive Tour victory:

Lance Armstrong has taken the yellow jersey at the Tour de France as his Discovery Channel team narrowly won the 67.5km team time trial from Tours to Blois on Tuesday.

Armstrong, who trailed CSC’s David Zabriskie by two seconds in the overall standings at the start of the day, finished with exactly that margin over CSC at the end of the stage. Zabriskie, however, was dropped by his team after the 26-year-old American crashed coming through a tight turn with less than 2km remaining.

He slipped to ninth overall, 1:28 behind Armstrong.

Meanwhile, Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) lost another 35 seconds to Armstrong as his T-Mobile team took third on the stage.

“We tried to stay tough, it’s a hard event,” Armstrong told television reporters afterward. “The team was unbelievable, everyone rolled through, everyone was great.”

Armstrong now leads teammate and compatriot George Hincapie by 55 seconds while Jens Voigt (CSC) is third, more than a minute behind.

Ullrich is now 101 seconds behind Lance. With the mountain stages to come, that lead may prove to be insurmountable. Barring a ride ending crash or injury, I can’t see how Lance can be stopped in his final ride through France.

Here in Austin, the tour frenzy is starting to really heat up. I’m sure today’s ride will only add to the local excitement.