Lance Armstrong was the right man in the right place in the third stage of the Tour de France, moving up to third overall at the expense of his Astana team leader Alberto Contador.

The seven-time Tour champion, back in the saddle after 3-1/2 years in retirement, moved up the front of the pack by the end of the stage and he was not surprised when Team Columbia suddenly accelerated to split the peloton in two.

All other favorites, including Spain's Contador, were trapped at the back of the peloton and eventually lost 41 seconds on the finish line.

Contador, fourth overall, now trails Armstrong by 19 seconds.

"Whenever you see a team lined up at the front like that, you have to pay attention," the 37-year-old Armstrong explained. "You know what the wind is doing, and you see that a turn is coming up, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that you have to go to the front."

"I was just trying to stay up front and stay out of trouble, and then it happened," added Armstrong.

Contador was the last man to be dropped, unable to follow the pace.

Experience

"That's not my objective but I turned around and was surprised that there was a split. You had the entire Columbia team there so they were riding.

"On days like this, for good or bad, you can make a difference."

With no other big favorite in the front group, Armstrong's teammates Haimar Zubeldia and Yaroslav Popovych eventually helped Columbia widen the gap.

"We didn't ride for a long time, and then at the end we put some guys on the front to ride but the vast majority of the work was done by other people," said Armstrong.

"I have won the Tour de France seven times, why wouldn't we ride at the front ? That makes no sense why you wouldn't ride."

Experience was another factor.

"Good positioning, experience, a little bit of luck. Just before that corner I was 20 guys back and I decided just that idea to move up enough to be on their wheel, and there it went," Armstrong said.

Asked whether he was tipped of the move by former lieutenant George Hincapie, now at Columbia, he said:

"No. They were on the front, but they were chasing the breakaway. It wasn't an attack, they were pulling back the break(away), they turned, they saw the wind, and they just accelerated.

"It wasn't as if it was an ambush - but they were already there. The only thing it was if anything was an acceleration."

(Reuters via China Daily July 8, 2009)