Astana takes a sledge hammer to the Tour!

Fabain retains the Yellow Jersey by 0.02 seconds from 7 time winner Lance Armstrong.


Swiss timing reigns supreme.

Stage 4 in Montpellier will be remembered as the day the Astana Team set about shredding their competition. Whatever happens in this tour from here on in, the Time Trial will be the point at which many of the leading contenders were crushed, now it might just be Astana v Astana. Team Astana set a cracking pace averaging 50.34km/h over the tricky 39km course, they finished in 46.29 - giving Lance Armstrong the same overall time as Fabian Cancellara. Both Men are locked on 10 hours 38 minutes and 7 seconds. However the computers tell us that Fabian is 0.02 seconds ahead. AS Fabian said after the stage, "Time was born in Switzerland, so that was on my side!". Fabians turn on the front over the last 200m was the difference in the end, im sure if lance had known it was going to be thousandths of a second he would have put that little bit more in!

We tipped Garmin here and were pretty happy with the price we got prior to the stage, we also bet Lance to be in yellow at the end. So there was no return - but oh what could have been!

So close.

But back to Garmin. They went out hard, very hard. They quickly lost Tyler Farrar, Danny Pate, Martijn Maaskant and Julian Dean. That left them with their main contender Christian Vande Velde riding with three time trial specialists in Zabriskie, Wiggins, & Millar as well as Hesjedal. They lost the 4 early because of the pace they set, they simply dropped them. I thought it might have been a strategy they had adopted - use up the 4 lesser TT riders early then let the big guns finish off, it certainly would have been a very ballsy move as the time taken at the finish is when the 5th rider crosses the line, so if anything happened after the 4 dropped off it was not going to work. I was riding with them though, i thought, yep, this is their stage, great move, all or nothing, and we collect! When they crossed the line they were fastest, 40 seconds ahead of Liquigas. However after the stage Vande Velde revealed that riding the second half of the event with only five riders (four really, since Ryder was doing his best but just hanging on at times.) was not the planned.

That makes their performance even more impressive. And I hope the 4 that were left behind are feeling bad. Not just because we backed them either.

So it took the colossus of Astana with their full complement of 9 men to defeat Garmin. In the end Astana won the stage by 18 seconds over Garmin and 40 seconds from Saxo Bank. Liquigas were excellent keeping Kreuziger in contention with a 58 second deficit and Columbia lost 59 seconds to the marauding team from Kazakhstan.

Lance is so close to yellow, but the other tale of the race is what has happened behind him.
In decimating the competition Astana have crushed the chances of some of the leading contenders.

Carlos Sastre - now 29th and 2 min 44 behind.
Cadel Evans - now 35th and 2 min 59 seconds behind.
Denis Menchov - now 72nd and 3 mins 52 seconds behind.

Sure Cadel missed having Thomas Dekker on his team who is good in a TT, should not have used EPO 2 years ago! Sure Menchov crashed, but that only cost him a few seconds, probably 20 in reality. Those two have no hope of winning the 2009 edition and I dont think Sastre, even though he is a better climber can either.

Even Rogers, Kreuziger and the Schleck brothers are going to find it hard from here.

The mountains are going to be mad!

Astana have this race by the throat.
They have riders in positions 2,3,4,5,7,11,& 18!

Here is a larger GC list with a few of the big guns highlighted.

General classification after stage 4

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 10:38:07
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:19
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:00:23
5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0:00:31
6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:00:38
7 Haimar Zubeldia Aguirre (Spa) Astana 0:00:51
8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:52
9 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:06
10 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:07
11 Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por) Astana 0:01:16
12 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
13 Gustav Erik Larsson (Swe) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:22
14 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - HTC 0:01:29
15 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 0:01:31
16 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - HTC 0:01:32
17 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC 0:01:36
18 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Astana
19 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas
20 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:41
21 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:46
22 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:03
23 Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Nor) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:05
24 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia - HTC 0:02:16
25 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:17
26 Brian Vandborg (Den) Liquigas 0:02:25
27 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha 0:02:31
28 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 0:02:32
29 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0:02:44
30 Nicki Sörensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank
31 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Liquigas 0:02:50
32 Bert Grabsch (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:02:51
33 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:02:54
34 Luis Pasamontes Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:02:56
35 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0:02:59
36 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha
37 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
38 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank 0:03:00
39 Mikhail Ignatiev (Rus) Team Katusha 0:03:02
40 Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:03:03
41 Hayden Roulston (NZl) Cervelo Test Team 0:03:05
42 Rui Alberto Faria da Costa (Por) Caisse d'Epargne 0:03:06
43 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo Test Team 0:03:07
44 Volodymir Gustov (Ukr) Cervelo Test Team 0:03:09
45 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram 0:03:11
46 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Caisse d'Epargne 0:03:12
47 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:13
48 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:16
49 Jérôme Pineau (Fra) Quick Step 0:03:17
50 José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
51 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
52 Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Team Katusha 0:03:18
53 Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
54 Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:21
55 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 0:03:23
56 Juan Jose Oroz Ugalde (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:03:24
57 Gorka Verdugo Marcotegui (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:03:25
58 Brett Lancaster (Aus) Cervelo Test Team 0:03:28
59 Frederik Willems (Bel) Liquigas 0:03:32
60 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia - HTC 0:03:33
61 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:34
62 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 0:03:36
63 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank
64 Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:38
65 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:42
66 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:44
67 Hubert Dupont (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:46
68 Nikolai Troussov (Rus) Team Katusha 0:03:47
69 Aleksandr Kuschynski (Blr) Liquigas
70 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:03:48
71 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Team Katusha 0:03:51
72 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:03:52
73 José Luis Arrieta Lujambio (Spa) AG2R La Mondiale
74 Carlos Barredo Llamazales (Spa) Quick Step 0:03:55
75 Laurens ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank 0:03:57
76 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Quick Step 0:04:03
77 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 0:04:04
78 Iñigo Cuesta Lopez De Castro (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0:04:05
79 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:04:09
80 Juan Manuel Garate Cepa (Spa) Rabobank
81 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:04:10
82 Christophe Kern (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 0:04:12
83 Grischa Niermann (Ger) Rabobank 0:04:16
84 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux
85 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:04:17
86 Alessandro Vanotti (Ita) Liquigas 0:04:23
87 Jérémy Roy (Fra) Française des Jeux
88 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step 0:04:25
89 Peter Velits (Svk) Team Milram 0:04:27
90 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Milram 0:04:28
91 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia - HTC 0:04:29
92 José Angel Gomez Marchante (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 0:04:30
93 Stijn Devolder (Bel) Quick Step
94 Mickael Delage (Fra) Silence - Lotto 0:04:31
95 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram 0:04:32
96 Juan Antonio Flecha Giannoni (Spa) Rabobank
97 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas 0:04:34
98 Alessandro Ballan (Ita) Lampre - NGC 0:04:35
99 Stéphane Auge (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 0:04:40
100 Joost Posthuma (Ned) Rabobank 0:04:46