Race developing into Armstrong v Contador

By Julien Pretot - Analysis

MONTPELLIER, France (Reuters) - The Tour de France has become a duel between seven-times champion Lance Armstrong and 2007 winner Alberto Contador after Astana won Tuesday's team time trial.

American Armstrong, back on the saddle after 3-1/2 years in retirement, missed out on the yellow jersey by a whisker as his team won the stage ahead of Garmin-Slipstream and Saxo Bank.

He was second in the overall standings with the same time as leader Fabian Cancellara. Contador was third, 19 seconds back as the first mountain stage, which includes an out-of-category climb to Arcalis, loomed on Friday.

Three favourites have slipped out of contention as defending champion Carlos Sastre, twice runner-up Cadel Evans, and Giro winner Denis Menchov were all over 2:30 off the pace after Tuesday's stage.

"I think today the Tour de France is finished for some riders," Armstrong told reporters.

"With the current classification, you can look at the results, it's difficult to make up some time."

"I told Alberto this morning, let's make this race impossible to win for other riders. We accomplished that."

Among the big guns, only Andy Schleck has limited the damage, finishing the stage in third place with Saxo Bank.