Lance Armstrong vaulted to within a second of the overall lead at the Tour de France after his Astana team won Tuesday’s team time-trial in a dramatic finish.

Fabian Cancellara, a Swiss rider with the Saxo Bank team, narrowly retained the yellow jersey after the fourth stage, a 39-kilometre ride in and around Montpellier. Astana came in needing to beat Saxo Bank by more than 40 seconds for Armstrong to take the yellow jersey.

The seven-time Tour winner started the stage in third place, and he and Astana exactly matched that 40-second deficit to Cancellara’s team, which finished third. “That’s Swiss timing,” Cancellara laughed. “Time is on my side.”

‘A bit disappointing’

Armstrong credited the effort by his team, but acknowledged that he had hoped to take the overall lead. “This is a little bit of a disappointment,” Armstrong said. “That’s cycling.”

He said the course along parched streets and many tight turns was “tricky.” Three crashes marred the start of the stage, including one involving Giro d’Italia winner Denis Menchov. US team Garmin placed second in the stage, 18 seconds after Astana, despite only five of the nine riders being able to keep up the pace.

Armstrong and Cancellara each have an overall time of 10 hours, 38 minutes, 7 seconds heading into Stage 5, a 196.5-kilometres jaunt, from Le Cap d’Agde along the Mediterranean to Perpignan. The top five after Cancellara are all Astana riders: 2007 winner and pre-race favorite Alberto Contador of Spain is 19 seconds back in third; Andreas Kloeden of Germany is fourth, while Levi Leipheimer is fifth, 31 seconds behind.