Armstrong loses ground on two main rivals

Lance Armstrong lost ground on two of his main Tour de France rivals on Thursday as two U.S. Postal riders fell in a spectacular team time trial on a slippery 67-kilometre course from Verdun to Bar-le-Duc.

Armstrong is now in 15th place in the overall standings, one minute 53 seconds behind leader Stuart O'Grady of Australia.

He lost ground on Joseba Beloki of Spain and Christophe Moreau of France but the American was satisfied to pick up time from Jan Ullrich and now has 27 seconds over him.

He is the man he sees as his main rival for the yellow jersey, but the German's Telekom team suffered an even more disappointing day than fourth-placed U.S. Postal, finishing in seventh.

Armstrong's team could manage no better than one minute 26 seconds behind Credit Agricole, whose winning time of 1:21:32 ensured they would keep the yellow jersey for O'Grady.

Armstrong, the American chasing a hat-trick of victories, lost 55 seconds to the ONCE team of Beloki in second place and 32 to Moreau's third-placed Festina.

Beloki and Moreau are both dangerous rivals for the yellow jersey but Armstrong will be grateful to have limited the damage after his team mates Christian Vandevelde and Roberto Heras were involved in a nasty looking crash.

Ullrich's Telekom team, tipped as one of the favourites for Thursday's test of solidarity, suffered as Kevin Livingston struggled and Erik Zabel punctured midway along the course, which brought out thousands of excited fans for what is always a thrilling spectacle.

They were almost two minutes behind the leaders and Ullrich slipped to 19th in the general classification.

SATISFIED WITH DISPLAY

"We took more time from Ullrich," Armstrong said. "Not a lot of time, but it's sufficient in psychological terms.

"I'm satisfied with this display. This was a good team time trial for us."

Vandevelde's fall, shortly after the second timecheck on 45 kms, almost led to catastrophe for Armstrong, as Heras, the man designated to shepherd the team leader through the mountains, was brought down in the process.

George Hincapie, just behind Vandevelde, displayed brilliant reactions to avoid coming down with them.

The team still lost close to a minute because of the fall, though, as they waited for the pair to catch up, mindful that a really bad time from Heras could see him eliminated from the race.

And it was Armstrong who took responsibility to make up the time, driving his team on from the front as they clawed their way back.

In the circumstances, the time of 1:22:58 was something of a triumph.

U.S. Postal had been running third at the 45-km mark, 27 seconds behind leaders Credit Agricole but almost a minute ahead of Ullrich's Telekom outfit.

Rabobank were the early pace-setters but their time of 1:23:19 was soon bettered by the Spanish team Kelme, who shaved nine seconds off that mark.

Telekom were 36 seconds down on Rabobank at the first split after 19.5-kms and although they improved in the second half their seventh-placed finish was highly disappointing.

U.S. Postal then staged their damage limitation exercise before ONCE posted 1:22:03.

Festina came in 23 seconds behind them but the Spanish team were denied a repeat of their success in this discipline last year as Credit Agricole took more than half a minute off them as the last team out.

Friday's sixth stage is run over 211.5 km from Commercy to Strasbourg.