Armstrong back to winning ways on Tour of the Algarve

TAVIRA (Portugal): Five-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong got back to winning ways here on Saturday claiming the fourth stage time-trial to take the lead on the Tour of the Algarve.

Armstrong timed 31.53sec to lead a US Postal sweep of the 24km time-trial between Vila Real de Santo Antonio and here coming in just one second ahead of fellow American Floyd Landis with Colombian Ictor Hugo Pena in third. The 32-year-old Armstrong, who is competing in his first race of the season, takes the overall lead with a slim 0.01 advantage on Landis with Pena 12sec off the pace going into Sunday’s final stage, a 178.5km run with an uphill finish between Faro and Malhao.

“I was surprised. I didn’t expect to have such a good result,” said Armstrong who was testing out a new bicycle for the first time Saturday. “The wind was in my face which is always dangerous. That’s why I tried to stay behind and hide myself as much as possible. It was a good first test (bicycle) but there are still some modifications to be made,” added Armstrong. —AFP

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