ROANNE, France, 9 June 2005 — Lance Armstrong completed what he considered his first real test for the upcoming Tour de France by finishing third in the 47km time trial of the Dauphine Libere’s third stage here yesterday.
The race lead went to Gerolsteiner’s Levi Leipheimer, who took over from Frenchman Samuel Dumoulin of the AG2R team.
The 33-year-old Armstrong, who rides for the Discovery Channel team, finished behind former world time trial champion Santiago Botero of Colombia, with Levi Leipheimer finishing in second place.
In what was considered a pre-Tour de France battle between some of the possible contenders for the yellow jersey, Floyd Landis — Botero’s teammate at the Phonak team — took fourth place ahead of Kazakhstan’s Alexandre Vinokourov.
It meant that three Americans finished in the top five behind South American winner Botero, and two of those - Leipheimer and Landis — were former members of Armstrong’s former team, US Postal.
Botero, the 2002 world champion in the discipline who is only beginning to regain his form after a barren couple of years at the T-Mobile team, stunned the field by posting a time of 1hr 00min 06secs.
Armstrong then came home with a deficit of 26secs to the 32-year-old from Medellin, while Leipheimer agonizingly missed out on a double victory by just a second, finishing in 1:00:07.
Vinokourov, who finished on the Tour podium in 2003, finished exactly a minute behind Botero and 34secs behind Armstrong in the race against the clock which was held in hot temperatures.
The time trial course featured only one climb, a 3.5km ascent at an average of six percent, although the remaining field of 155 riders had to contend with a strong headwind for the rest of the way.
