Tour de France Capsules: Armstrong solid; Cancellara wins Tour's 1st stage

MONACO - Lance Armstrong put in a solid performance in his comeback at the Tour de France on Saturday, finishing the first stage ahead of 170 riders many years younger and a respectable 10th behind winner Fabian Cancellara.

Armstrong's Astana team was dominant in the time trial through the hills and hairpin turns of Monaco, led by the cyclist who would be his heir as Tour titan - Alberto Contador of Spain.

The Texan, who has a record seven Tour victories, is making his return to cycling's showcase event after ending a 3½-year retirement this winter. The 37-year-old Armstrong, one of the oldest riders in the pack, had a chance to test out his legs and state of mind.

"I was nervous, I was excited, and trying to focus on doing the right race specifically in terms of starting easy and finishing good," he said. "When I finished, I was tired - yeah, it was a hard race."

Cancellara took the yellow jersey by finishing the 9.6-mile time trial in 19 minutes, 32 seconds - 18 seconds ahead of Contador, the 2007 Tour winner.

"I didn't expect to win or to take the jersey. I didn't expect a super, super performance," Armstrong said. "It's been a long time since I've had that emotion of being on the start ramp at the Tour."

The race against the clock, in which riders set off one by one, offered an early shakeout about the potential contenders to win the three-week cycling showcase.

Contador showed he was ready.

"Fabian is a great champion ... (but) my form is very good," the 26-year-old Spaniard said. "I must try to keep up this level. I think I have started well."

Contador was forced to sit out last year because of doping problems at Astana before he joined. He is a far better climber than Cancellara, and the Pyrenees loom in Stage 7.

Contador led four Astana riders into the top 10. Andreas Kloeden of Germany was fourth, American Levi Leipheimer was sixth and rival Armstrong was 40 seconds back in 10th.

Contador got an edge on other title hopefuls. Two-time Tour runner-up Cadel Evans of Australia was 23 seconds behind Cancellara in fifth and Giro d'Italia winner Denis Menchov was 1:31 back in 53rd place.

Carlos Sastre, the reigning Tour champion, was 1:06 behind Cancellara. The 34-year-old Spaniard wanted to wear the yellow jersey, his team said, but Tour organizers have ended the tradition of letting the previous year's champion ride in it for the start after Floyd Landis was stripped of his title in 2006 over a doping scandal.

Much has been made of Armstrong's rivalry with Contador, who also stands a chance to become one of cycling's greatest riders. He has already won each of the Grand Tours of France, Italy and Spain - a feat accomplished by only five riders, and not Armstrong.

On his Twitter account, Armstrong hailed Leipheimer's "awesome" ride, but he didn't give an immediate reaction about the performance of Contador.

Armstrong, who rode 18th among the 180 riders to leave the start ramp, took the provisional lead early - baring his teeth and pedaling up out of the saddle as he neared the finish.

Only 15 riders later, Tony Martin of Germany outpaced him. Others also soon bettered Armstrong's time, including Leipheimer and Liquigas rider Roman Kreuziger.

"Kreuziger just moved into 2nd. I raced with his dad! Haha," Armstrong tweeted.

It was clearly an older Armstrong, not the Armstrong of old.

During his reign as Tour champion, Armstrong never finished lower than third in a time trial, except once, when he placed seventh in one in 2003.

"My heart rate - it didn't look exactly at the top, probably 196 (beats per minute maximum), so that's as hard as I can go," he said.

In another time trial in 2005, Armstrong outpaced Cancellara by more than a minute.

Cancellara, of the Saxo Bank team, will wear the overall race leader's yellow jersey for Sunday's second stage - a 16.2-mile ride across plains from Monaco to Brignoles, France.

"I think maybe in 5 years there are other riders coming and they will be faster than me. That's cycling - that's time," Cancellara said, when asked about Armstrong. "I also get older."

Armstrong's first ride: neither bad nor great

MONACO - The nervous plainclothes policeman scrutinized the frenzy, the cameramen elbowed and sweated in the Mediterranean sun and that dead-shark look of determination was back in the eyes of the bike racer everyone came to see.

Yup, no doubt about it, Lance Armstrong is back at the Tour de France. Weirdly, give-or-take a few gray hairs, it was almost as if he'd never been away. With each push of his aluminum pedals, the 37-year-old rolled back the years - almost.

The seven-time champion's first ride in four years at the race he used to dominate threw out three essential pieces of information:

-Armstrong is no longer the Tour's top dog. He still looks good, really good, but no longer quite as awesome as he did when he was "le Boss" around these parts.

-For someone who spent so long away, living a celebrity lifestyle, knocking back beers and growing his family, he has done an impressive job of whipping himself back into shape. Those muscular thighs, sunken cheekbones and wiry frame don't lie. His Tour comeback is not just the ill-prepared whim of a celebrity kidding himself that he's still a pro cyclist. He may no longer be the fastest of the 180 riders, but he's nowhere near the slowest, either.

-Alberto Contador, Armstrong's teammate, really seems to be the man to beat. The Spaniard looked, well, more Amstrong-ish than Armstrong on Saturday. The way he powered around the hilly, twisting and difficult course was reminiscent of how Armstrong would have done it when he was at his peak. No wonder Armstrong wanted Contador on his team, not racing against him. It's that old mafia thing - keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

The bottom line: on Saturday, Armstrong rode his worst time trial at the Tour since the cancer-survivor first took the race by the scruff of the neck in 1999.

He placed - gasp! - 10th. There's dozens of guys at the Tour who would give their paychecks to be that good and 170 of them - most of them years his junior - finished behind him.

Armstrong was only 40 seconds slower than the winner, Fabian Cancellara, the Olympic champion in this intense, technical discipline of racing against the clock.

In building his record string of seven Tour wins from 1999-2005, Armstrong competed in 19 time trials and won 11 of them. He placed no worse than third in all the others except one - a short clock-race in Paris at the start of the 2003 Tour, where he was seventh.

The last time he raced Cancellara over a similar distance at the Tour, in 2005, the Texan was a minute faster than the Swiss. Contador was nearly 2 minutes slower than Armstrong that day. On Saturday, Contador was 22 seconds quicker - but he is 11 years younger, too.

Basically, the rust wasn't glaring Saturday but it showed. Armstrong never looked 100 percent comfortable in the saddle. He acknowledged as much afterward. At times, he weaved across the road. He looked a trifle hesitant on fast downhills.

At the finish, Armstrong sat exhaustedly on an ice cooler outside his team's bus, using a towel to soak up the sweat pouring down his face. When his manager gave Armstrong his time - 20 minutes, 12 seconds - all he could do was nod his head. Words seemed beyond him.

But a quick breather and change of clothes later, Armstrong perked up and spoke to the writhing mass of reporters and cameramen desperate to hear how he felt.

"I was a little all over the place, just because the course wasn't consistent. It was up, flat, it was down, it was a technical course," he said. "But I think overall, I felt good."

Not too much should be read into this first day's performances. They were just enough to whet the appetite, not make firm predictions on how the next three weeks of racing and drama might pan out.

Contador still needs to leave more daylight between him and Armstrong if he is going to become the undisputed leader of their Astana team. If that happens, Armstrong has said that he would ride for the Spaniard, basically sacrificing his own ambitions.

Even if that happens, it wouldn't be the end of Armstrong's world. Bottom line is that riding this Tour sure seems to beat watching it on TV - as he did last year.

"I have a lot of other things that I could be doing," Armstrong said. "But I want to do this."

John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester@ap.org

Phinney in no rush to reach cycling's grand stage

Taylor Phinney woke up early Saturday, settling in to watch the Tour de France prologue from his couch in Boulder, Colo.

Someday, he'll have a different view of cycling's premier event.

"I'm just one bike racer enjoying watching a bike race, which is kind of funny, because whenever we get in a bike race we just want it to be over," Phinney said. "But this one, I'm going to enjoy."

By the schedule he's mapped out, the 19-year-old son of U.S. cycling royalty will be in Le Tour in 2012 or 2013. Phinney spent the past year smashing expectations, first by reaching the Beijing Olympics, then winning the world individual pursuit title, capped by becoming the first American to win the Paris-Roubaix race for riders under 23.

And ultimately, the Tour will be his obsession.

But for now, he believes it'll all happen in good time.

"I had the opportunity to turn pro after the Olympics," Phinney said. "And something really good about having the parents that I have, I don't really have the need to rush things. I realize that I have a good head on my shoulders and I have good people backing me."

Indeed, his backers are a who's-who of cycling.

His father, Davis, is a former Tour de France stage winner and still is the winningest U.S. cyclist ever. His mother, Connie, won a cycling gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. And his biggest backer is none other than Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour winner who picked Phinney to be part of his U-23 team last year.

"I wouldn't rule anything out with Taylor," Armstrong said this spring.

In turn, Phinney wouldn't rule anything out for Armstrong, either.

Armstrong was 10th in the opening stage of the Tour on Saturday in Monaco, finishing 40 seconds behind Swiss time-trial specialist Fabian Cancellara.

"You can never discount Lance," Phinney said. "I know he has the motivation. He weighs less and his power numbers are the same as when he was winning the tour. It's going to be interesting."

Seriously, could Phinney have someone better to emulate?

He's been hearing "The Next Lance" stuff for years, finding it flattering at first and now merely just shrugging it off. No matter what he does, Phinney insists he - or anyone else, for that matter - will never match Armstrong's tale.

"It's not something that burdens me," Phinney said. "No one is capable of being the next Lance, because Lance's story is so unique. It's a story that hasn't been told in any other sport. Getting cancer, winning seven Tours in a row, beating cancer and coming back, it's so inconceivable."

Not long ago, what Phinney has done over the past few months would have been inconceivable as well.

He was the best U.S. track cycling story of the Beijing Games. Less than a year before those Olympics, he got on a track bike for the first time. Out of nowhere, he became the national champion in the individual pursuit, a 16-lap race around the velodrome that competitors describe as four minutes of sheer hell, pedaling furiously from the moment the starter's gun pops.

Winning the world title this spring was another splashy moment, followed by hopping onto his road bike for the Paris-Roubaix victory two months later.

But the track remains his main focus, and winning gold in London three years from now is Phinney's top priority.

"A gold medal makes you recognizable within the U.S. and getting that recognition, being known as a gold medalist is a lot different than being known as a Tour stage winner," Phinney said. "I've shown that I'm definitely capable of getting the gold medal. After that, I'll have a long career. I definitely have a while to keep growing within the sport."

That's the way Armstrong sees it, too.

"We expect big things out of him, not just for the development team but for USA Cycling," Armstrong said during the Tour of the Gila in April. "Who knows when you go from the pursuit to the track, then you take it to the road? Who knows how that transfers into a race like Flanders or Roubaix or the Tour or anything? He could be with us for a long time."

-- Tim Reynolds

A look at the first stage of the Tour

MONACO - A brief look at Saturday's first stage of the Tour de France:

Stage: A 9.6-mile individual time trial in Monaco.

Winner: Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland earned his fourth stage victory on the Tour. He completed the challenging course in 19 minutes, 32 seconds. The Olympic champion beat 2007 Tour winner and race favorite Alberto Contador of Spain, who took second place 18 seconds behind. Bradley Wiggins of Britain finished 19 seconds in third.

Yellow Jersey: Cancellara.

Quote of the Day: "We like all this drama. We like the fact that people are trying to throw us off our game ... and when we still win - it's nice." Levi Leipheimer, on the reported rivalry within the Astana team, which includes seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong and Contador.

Next stage: Sunday's second stage takes the peloton from Monaco to Brignoles on a 116.2-mile route in the Mediterranean hinterland. The stage is punctuated by four small climbs and is likely to favor breakaway riders, especially if the wind is strong.

Tour de France Results

1. Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland, Team Saxo Bank, 19 minutes, 32 seconds.

2. Alberto Contador, Spain, Astana, 18 seconds behind.

3. Bradley Wiggins, Britain, Garmin-Slipstream, :19.

4. Andreas Kloden, Germany, Astana, :22.

5. Cadel Evans, Australia, Silence-Lotto, :23.

6. Levi Leipheimer, United States, Astana, :30.

7. Roman Kreuziger, Czech Republic, Liquigas, :32.

8. Tony Martin, Germany, Team Columbia-High Road, :33.

9. Vincenzo Nibali, Italy, Liquigas, :37.

10. Lance Armstrong, United States, Astana, :40.

11. Gustav Larsson, Sweden, Team Saxo Bank, :41.

12. Mikel Astarloza, Spain, Euskaltel-Euskadi, :44.

13. David Zabriskie, United States, Garmin-Slipstream, :47.

14. David Millar, Britain, Garmin-Slipstream, :48.

15. Jerome Coppel, France, Francaise des Jeux, :51.

16. Sylvain Chavanel, France, Quick Step, :56.

17. Christian Vande Velde, United States, Garmin-Slipstream, :57.

18. Andy Schleck, Luxembourg, Team Saxo Bank, 1:00.

19. Linus Gerdemann, Germany, Team Milram, 1:03.

20. Remi Pauriol, France, Cofidis, 1:05.

34. George Hincapie, United States, Team Columbia-High Road, 1:17.

37. Danny Pate, United States, Garmin-Slipstream, 1:20.

77. Tyler Farrar, United States, Garmin-Slipstream, 1:42.

2009 Tour de France Stages-Winners 

July 4 - First Stage, Monaco_Monaco, individual time trial, 15.5 kilometers (9.6 miles) (Stage: Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland; Overall: Cancellara)

July 5 - Second Stage, Monaco_Brignoles, plain, 187 km (116.2)

July 6 - Third Stage, Marseille_La Grande-Motte, plain, 196.5 km (122.0)

July 7 - Fourth Stage, Montpellier_Montpellier, team time trial, 39 km (24.2)

July 8 - Fifth Stage, Le Cap d'Agde_Perpignan, plain, 196.5 km (122.0)

July 9 - Sixth Stage, Gerona, Spain_Barcelona, plain, 181.5 km (112.8)

July 10 - Seventh Stage, Barcelona_Andorra Arcalis, Andorra, high mountain, 224 km (139.2)

July 11 - Eighth Stage, Andorra-la-Vieille_Saint-Girons, France, high mountain, 176.5 km (109.7)

July 12 - Ninth Stage, Saint-Gaudens_Tarbes, high mountain, 160.5 km (99.7)

July 13 - Rest Day, Limoges

July 14 - 10th Stage, Limoges_Issoudun, plain, 194.5 km (120.9)

July 15 - 11th Stage, Vatan_Saint-Fargeau, plain, 192 km (119.3)

July 16 - 12th Stage, Tonnerre_Vittel, plain, 211.5 km (131.4)

July 17 - 13th Stage, Vittel_Colmar, medium mountain, 200 km (124.3)

July 18 - 14th Stage, Colmar_Besancon, plain, 199 km (123.7)

July 19 - 15th Stage, Pontarlier_Verbier, Switzerland, high mountain, 207.5 km (128.9)

July 20 - Rest Day, Verbier

July 21 - 16th Stage, Martigny, Switzerland_Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France, high mountain, 159 km (98.8)

July 22 - 17th Stage, Bourg-Saint-Maurice_Le Grand-Bornand, high mountain, 169.5 km (105.3)

July 23 - 18th Stage, Annecy_Annecy, individual time trial, 40.5 km (25.2)

July 24 - 19th Stage, Bourgoin-Jallieu_Aubenas, plain, 178 km (110.6)

July 25 - 20th Stage, Montelimar_Mont Ventoux, high mountain, 167 km (103.8)

July 26 - 21st Stage, Montereau-Fault-Yonne_Paris-Champs-Elysees, plain, 164 km (101.9)

Total: 3,459 kms (2,149.5 miles)