Here is a scene from today's stage of the Tour de France. The scene shows Team Columbia (in yellow and white) splitting the peloton in a crosswind. Once a gap appeared, the riders in the back couldn't catch up because the pace being set by Team Columbia was too high. Lance Armstrong happened to be near the front of the peloton when the split occurred, so, without doing any work, he gained time on many of his rivals, including his teammate Alberto Contador. Armstrong moved from 10th to third place overall. The two riders in front of him in the overall standings (Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin) are not contenders for the overall title. Lance is back! Here is tomorrow's stage: a team time trial. Lance has an excellent team, so he should be in the maillot jaune (yellow jersey) at this time tomorrow.
Addendum: Here is the New York Times story.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 