Posties capture EIGHT of the top ten spots after the team time trial
today!

From OLN...

A Collective Effort Delivers A Victory For Victor

There is a rich history of success for Colombian riders in the Tour
de France. A total of 63 riders from this South American nation have
started the race, seven of them have won 12 stages, two of them have
claimed the overall climbing prize and one has finished third
overall. And today Victor Hugo Pena gave the country's vocal
commentators something more to scream about. He will celebrate his
29th birthday tomorrow by lining up for the fifth stage in the yellow
jersey of overall leader.
It's a fitting reward for a rider who has been a part of the US
Postal Service team since the start of the 2001 season. The golden
prize is the result, however, of a cooperative effort from the
American-registered team which won the team time trial. They finished
30 seconds ahead of the ONCE-Eroski formation which has robbed the
Posties of victory in the collective effort twice in the last three
years.
Pena's one second advantage over Lance Armstrong at the top of the
overall classification also makes him the first Colombian in history
to wear the Tour's maillot jaune.
On the eve of the race's departure from the region famous for its
production of champagne – and moves into the Bourgogne – these are
some reasonable excuses for the US Postal Service team to pop a few
corks from the bottles of the local produce, even if there's likely
to be more to toast in the following weeks.
The blue train were patient with their effort today. At the first of
three intermediate time checks they trailed six other teams. Telekom
set the early standard before being overtaken by four other teams at
the 44.5km mark. Leading the charge were Joseba Beloki's ONCE-Eroski
crew. They were six seconds up on the Postal formation and 11 seconds
ahead of an impressive performance by iBanesto.com. Then came the
Postal push. With 10km to go, Pena, Armstrong and their seven
comrades – Roberto Heras, Manuel Beltran, Vjatcheslav Ekimov, George
Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Pavel Padrnos and Jose Luis Rubiera – took
control. They past the 59km time check 17 seconds clear of their
nearest rivals. And Pena's birthday celebrations seemed destined to
turn yellow.
When all nine riders raced across the line the elation was obvious.
George Hincapie threw an arm in the air to signal the joy he felt
from his first stage success from eight Tour starts. Rubiera led the
blue brigade over the line ahead of a beaming Pena. Armstrong, who is
likely to experience more glory in the coming weeks waited at the
back and grinned at the knowledge of his team's coup. His colleagues
had, after all, ridden well enough to place eight of their riders
into the top 10 in the overall classification. Beloki is the nearest
challenger in ninth, 33 seconds behind tomorrow's birthday boy.
Yes, they're back… back again. Only this time, the Posties enjoyed
success as a collective train!