Armstrong Back in Yellow

Lance Armstrong, the six-time winner of the Tour de France, took the yellow jersey today after a dramatic fourth stage during which leader David Zabriskie crashed three kilometres from the line.

Armstrong, who was two seconds behind CSC's Zabriskie at the start of the day, now leads by 55 seconds after his Discovery Channel team won the team time trial, over 67.5km between Tours and Blois, by just two seconds from CSC.

"We tried to stay tough, its a hard event," Armstrong told reporters. "The team was unbelievable, everyone rolled through, everyone was great."

Meanwhile Zabriskie, who finished with his shorts and jersey ripped and blood pouring from several wounds after losing his balance and his bike before a nasty crash, rode in several minutes after his team-mates to drop down to ninth in the standings.

Jan Ullrich's T-Mobile team came home third, 35 seconds off the pace.

Results (after 67km):

Discovery Channel (Lance Armstrong) 1:10:39

CSC (David Zabriskie) 1:10:41

T-Mobile (Jan Ullrich) 1:11:14

Phonak (Santiago Botero) 1:12:10

(After 61.6 km)

1 CSC 1:05:10

2 Discovery Channel 1:05:12

3 T-Mobile 1:05:36

5 Phonak 1:06:27

After 45.8 km

1 CSC 47:08

2 Discovery Channel 47:14

3 T-Mobile 47:15

5 Phonak 47:57

After 25 km

1 CSC 25:36

3 Discovery Channel 25:51

3 T-Mobile 25:51

7 Phonak 26:15