Stage 4 of the Tour de France has finished and the Astana team came out victorious.  But before I get into that, just a couple of facts about this stage. This is the first time since 2005 that the team time trial has been a part of the tour.  Cyclists faced a 39-kilometer run through the backstreets of Montpellier.  It’s a crowd favorite, but not a favorite of the teams as they have to ride as a unit and even the smallest mistake can be costly.

This is something that a few found out early on.  Three riders crashed after misjudging the first turn of the course, including world champion Alessandro Ballan and Russian Denis Menchov.  Later on in the course, four riders from the French BBox Bouygues Telecom team also took a tumble.  It cost the team five minutes as the riders struggled to get back on the road.

The biggest news of the stage came from Lance Armstrong and the Astana team.  Despite rumors of internal strife, they performed well together as they sped through the highly technical course, finishing in 46 minutes 29 seconds to win the stage.  All though the team finished in the top position, their time was a fraction of a second short of getting Armstrong the yellow jersey.  Swiss rider Fabien Cancellera gets to hold onto it for now, but judging by the impressive performance put on by Armstrong and his team in the past two stages, it shouldn’t be long before he’s back in yellow.  He has now moved up to second place overall.

Garmin Slipstream finished the time trial 18 seconds behind Astana to take second place, and Saxo Bank came in third 40 seconds behind.  Not so lucky were a few other title hopefuls who might just be out of contention after the impressive performance put on by the Astana team.  These include defending champion Carlos Sastre of Spain who is 2:44 back and two-time runner up Cadel Evans of Australia who is 2:59 back.  That time will be hard to make up as the flats give way to the mountain courses in the upcoming days of the Tour.

All hope is not lost though.  Stage 5 from Le Cap d’Agde to Perpignan is a 196.5-kilometer sprinter’s dream.  It will be similar to Stages 2 and 3 – mostly flat with a couple of category 4 climbs.  Expect to see riders such as Evans rushing to make up for lost time.  Britain’s Mark Cavendish and Team Columbia should also put up a good showing in this stage, as he will be looking to gather points before the Tour heads into the mountains.

BetUS is offering matchup odds on all your favorite riders, so be sure to check it out if you want to take a punt on the Stage 5 contenders.  They are also offering a few futures on the race, including:

To Win Stage 5
Mark Cavendish: -225
Thor Hushovd: +800
Oscar Freire: +1000
Tom Boonen: +1000
Tyler Farrar: +1200

King of the Mountains
David Moncoutie: +150
Alberto Contador: +500
Robert Gesink: +1500
Frank Schleck: +1500
Lance Armstrong: +2000

To Win the Tour
Alberto Contador: -155
Andy Schleck: +1000
Lance Armstrong: +200
Cadel Evans: +1500
Denis Menchov: +6500