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Stage 4 - Montpellier team trial

Plenty of action in today's time trial in Montpellier. The first team out were Caisse D'Epargne and one of their riders crashed before they'd even left Montpellier, and the same corner claimed a few more riders before the stage was over. Dennis Menchov (winnder of the Giro d'Italia) also crashed

The main area of interest was how well would Astana do compared to Saxo Bank- would Armstrong take yellow from Cancellara, with Armstrong 40 seconds behind Cancellara in the overall standings? Saxo Bank put in a good time but with 10 minutes to go Astana were 41 seconds ahead putting Armstrong in yellow if they kept that gap up. Astana crossed the line 40 seconds ahead of Saxo Bank; initially it was thought that Armstrong had grabbed yellow but Cancellara kept it by hundredths of a second.

The yellow jersey was presented by Ben Stiller during the presentation at the stage end. Apparently he's been a big cycling fan since meeting Armstrong during the filming of Dodgeball.

In other news Bradley Wiggins, David Millar and David Zabriskie put in a good performance for Garmin putting them in 2nd place, whereas Cadel Evans and the Silence Lotto team failed to make up any time and finished out of the top 5.

Columbia High Road and Mark Cavendish gave a solid team effort to claim 5th place and Cavendish retains the green jersey.

Today's Result:

1. Astana 46 minutes 29 seconds
2. Garmin +18 secs
3. Saxo Bank + 40 secs
4. Liquigas +58 secs
5. Team Columbia + 59 secs

Overall Standings:

1 033 Fabian CANCELLARA SUI SAX 10h38'07'' 00''
2 022 Lance ARMSTRONG USA AST 10h38'07'' 00''
3 021 Alberto CONTADOR ESP AST 10h38'26'' 19''
4 023 Andréas KLÖDEN GER AST 10h38'30'' 23''
5 024 Levi LEIPHEIMER USA AST 10h38'38'' 31''
6 058 Bradley WIGGINS GBR GRM 10h38'45'' 38''
7 029 Haimar ZUBELDIA ESP AST 10h38'58'' 51''
8 076 Tony MARTIN GER THR 10h38'59'' 52''
9 059 David ZABRISKIE USA GRM 10h39'13'' 1'06''
10 056 David MILLAR GBR GRM 10h39'14'' 1'07''

Tomorrow's stage is LE CAP D’AGDE > PERPIGNAN • 196.5 km with a few hills in the middle section and a flat last half, which will favour the sprinters again unless there is breakaway early on to spoil the party.