Yellow jersey hopeful Cadel Evans was given an alarming reminder of the value of team work at the Tour de France on Tuesday after a fourth stage which has severely dented his victory chances.

On a team time trial over 39km Evans, the runner-up the past two editions, was one of several contenders to fall victim to Lance Armstrong's Astana team, who now have their eye firmly, and defiantly, on the race's big prize.

Starting 10th from the field of 20, Silence had a race to forget before finishing in 13th place over two and a half minutes down on Armstrong's triumphant team.

The 37-year-old American is now second overall officially 00:00 behind Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, who kept the yellow jersey he won on the opening stage time trial by just two tenths of a second.

Defending champion Carlos Sastre, Evans, and in particular Denis Menchov - who dropped, in dramatic fashion, down to 72nd overall at 3:52 behind Cancellara - were undoubtedly among the names in Armstrong's mind as he spelled out their situation ahead of three days in the Pyrenees beginning Friday.

"I think today, the Tour de France is finished for some riders," said Armstrong, who hinted that he may work for Spanish team-mate Alberto Contador, the 2007 champion, in Friday's first mountain stage to Arcalis in Andorra.

"The way the team time trial is now, you can look at the results ... it's difficult, and no disrespect, but it's difficult to make up that time."

Evans, who was beat into second place by Contador in 2007 and by Sastre last year, virtually admitted the return to the race of Astana this year is a considerable factor.

"As expected, Astana put in a great ride, which puts me at 2:59 - not a position I wanted to be in," Evans said on his website www.cadelevans.com.au.

"Still close to guys like Andy Schleck and Carlos (Sastre), but a long way behind the favourites of Astana. I certainly have my work cut out for me now."

More than one critic will be pointing their finger at Evans' Silence team, which this year has been reinforced with a view to giving the Australian more support in the key mountain stages where, in the past, he has often been isolated.

But on the team time trial, the race's second big rendez-vous, Silence met plenty of misfortune.

First they lost Jurgen Van den Broeck to a crash inside two kilometres, a fact Evans was unaware of as he tried to keep his team together for as long as possible.

Staf Schierlinckx then dropped off the back as he struggled to keep pace, and was then followed by Belgian compatriot Johan Vansummeren, who it later emerged had punctured.

Silence slowed up and waited for Vansummeren to rejoin in the hope he would recover later in the race and thus help them close their deficit.

But that also cost them time, as did completing the race with specialist climbers Matt Lloyd and Charly Wegelius.

"The guys like Matt (Lloyd) and Charly (Wegelius) especially, they're really not designed for this (event)," said Evans.

"They're young riders and they haven't had many chances to ride a team time trial.

"Johan punctured mid way, for him we waited - we needed his power on the fast finish. Altogether costing us at least one minute if not more."

The end result is that Armstrong's Astana team is firmly in the driving seat, with four of their riders among the top ten.

As of now, they can well afford to be defiant.

"We have a minute and a half on both Andy Schleck and Sastre while we have bearly three minutes on Evans," said Astana team manager Johan Bruyneel.

"The main thing of the day was to keep all the favourites in our team up there and take time off everyone else.

"That was our mission - to take time off our rivals, and not have too many accidents."

AFP

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