Lance Armstrong was in bullish mood about his chances of another Tour de France success following Astana's win in the team time trial.
The American, a seven-time Tour champion, wiped out a 40-second deficit to race leader Fabian Cancellara thanks to Astana's victory in Stage Four yesterday.
Cancellara, of Saxo Bank, remains in the yellow jersey heading into today's fifth stage between Le Cap d'Agde and Perpignan but he now has an identical time to Armstrong, who has not lost any of his fighting spirit after three-and-a-half years out of the saddle.
Armstrong refused to play down his hopes of what would be a sensational Tour win.
‘I am happy with where I am,’ he said.
‘I don't know if I'm the best in the race. (But) I came in this race thinking that I would be one of the best, based on the training and tests that I've done.
‘Today I am realistic. I have both feet on the ground.’
Armstrong believes Astana dealt a serious blow to some title candidates with their team time trial success.
The team from Kazakhstan have four riders - Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer - in the top five of the general classification but the likes of Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto) and Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) took a hit yesterday and lie way down the standings.
‘The most important thing is that we won the stage and took time on the other rivals,’ Armstrong said.
‘I said it earlier to Alberto as well that it is so important that we take time on Evans, Sastre and the others.
‘We were fairly successful. I wouldn't like to be two minutes down right now.’
Astana, the last team out for the time trial, finished in 46 minutes and 29 seconds to oust Garmin-Slipstream into second, 18 seconds back.
Cancellara's Saxo Bank were third, a further 22 seconds behind, with Liquigas and Columbia fourth and fifth respectively.
Columbia's Tony Martin started the day second but drops out of the leading bunch and is now eighth, 52 seconds off the pace.
