BLOIS, France, 6 July 2005 — Lance Armstrong seized the Tour de France yellow jersey in dramatic fashion yesterday when his Discovery Channel team won the fourth stage ahead of the CSC outfit of previous leader David Zabriskie, who crashed near the finish.
Armstrong’s teammates, who won the team time trial last year, dominated the 67.5 km fourth stage between Tours and Blois, clocking one hour, 10 minutes and 39 seconds at an astounding average speed of 57.31 kph, the fastest in a Tour. Helped by a strong tailwind, the Texan and his partners beat the CSC team of yellow jersey holder Zabriskie by two seconds - exactly the lead the Salt Lake City rider had held over Armstrong at the start.
Had he finished with his team, Zabriskie would probably have stayed in top spot but the 26-year-old American, winner of the opening individual time trial on Saturday, lost everything when he crashed on a steep turn 1,200 meters from the line. His teammates were forced to leave him behind and finish without him. Had the incident occurred in the last kilometer, Zabriskie would have been given the same time as his CSC mates.
German team T-Mobile, led by 1997 Tour champion Jan Ullrich, were third in 1:11:14.
Armstrong now leads teammate George Hincapie by 55 seconds in the overall classification. Zabriskie, who finished the stage with his yellow jersey torn and cuts on his arms and legs, dropped to ninth, 1:26 adrift of Armstrong.
The fastest average speed previously recorded was 55.152 kph by Briton Chris Boardman in the 1994 prologue but over the much shorter distance of 7.2 km. Armstrong’s teammates also smashed the highest previous average speed for a Tour de France team time trial of 54.93kph, clocked by Italian crew Gewiss Ballan over the same distance in 1995. The fastest Tour road stage, excluding time trials, also ended in Blois and was won by Italian Mario Cipollini in 1999 at an average of 50.355 kph.
