Tour de France: Postmen take TTT

The US Postal Service team won its first team time trial today. By virtue of Victor Hugo Peña’s overall place, 1 second ahead of Armstrong, he becomes the new maillot jaune, the first ever yellow jersey from Colombia.

The tight bunching at the top of the leaderboard after yesterday's stage means that the Postmen are placed first through eighth in the overall standings!

1) Peña
2) Armstrong at 1”
3) Viatcheslav Ekimov (37 years old) at 5”
4) George Hincapie at 5”
5) José Luis Rubiera at 23”
6) Roberto Heras at 27”
7) Pavel Padrnos at 27”
8) Floyd Landis at 28”
9) Joseba Beloki (ONCE) at 33”
10) Jorg Jaksche (ONCE) at 38”

It’s fairly common to drop a rider or two who can’t keep up during the TTT — ONCE, Bianchi, and iBanesto all came in with 7 — but the Postal Service team demonstrated its depth by finishing strong and complete.

In the overall standings that count, Armstrong put 30 seconds into Joseba Beloki of ONCE, 43 seconds into Jan Ullrich of Bianchi and more than 3 minutes into Gilberto Simoni of Saeco.

Other team leaders (GC, or overall standings):
12) Jan Ullrich (Bianchi) at 39”
28) Fancisco Mancebo (iBanesto) at 1:30
29) Santiago Botero (Telekom) at 1:33
34) Paolo Bettini (QuickStep) at 1:39
39) Tyler Hamilton (CSC, riding with a broken collarbone!) at 1:45
40) Laurent Brochard (AG2R) at 1:45
56) David Millar (Cofidis) at 2:00
62) Christophe Moreau (Credit Agricole) at 2:03
63) Stefano Garzelli (Vini Caldirola) at 2:03
69) Davide Rebellin (Garolsteiner)at 2:10
79) Ivan Basso (Fassa Bortolo) at 2:18
81) Laurent Dufaux (Alessio) at 2:21
92) Didier Rous (Brioches) at 2:43
106) Gilberto Simoni (Saeco) at 3:09

Yesterday’s yellow jersey, Jean-Patrick Nazon of Jean Delatour, is now in 112th, 3:19 behind Peña.

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