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MONTPELLIER, France - For the first time in four years at the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong stood atop the podium and raised his arms high. In one hand was the trophy for winning stage 4 on Tuesday. In the other was a bouquet of flowers.

He would have been celebrating in the yellow jersey, too, slipping on that familiar color in front of a cheering crowd. But a mere split-second kept him from it.

Armstrong's team, Astana, won the team time trial in commanding fashion by finishing the 24.2-mile (39-kilometer) course in 46 minutes 29 seconds. If Astana had crossed the finish line just a whisper faster, Armstrong would have moved into first over all. But he is in second now, less than a second behind Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara.

"It's a little bit of a disappointment," Armstrong, the seven-time Tour winner, said afterward. "But I have seven yellow jerseys at home."

Cancellara, the time trial specialist, let out a sigh after hearing he would not have to give up the precious maillot jaune. His team, Saxo Bank, finished third in the time trial, with a time of 47:09. Garmin-Slipstream, finishing with only five riders, was second, at 46:47.

Cancellara, from Switzerland, joked about the clock favoring him, not Armstrong. He hailed what he called, "the precision of Swiss timing."

"To be in the end still in yellow with this small amount of seconds, I think me and my team could be proud of what they were doing today," Cancellara said. "Time is born in Switzerland, I think that's good. It's on my side. Now we'll do our best to keep the yellow jersey when we ride into Paris."

Astana riders, too, would like to ride into Paris on the final day on July 26 and celebrate a Tour victory. No matter what happens between now and then, though, it would have been a roller-coaster ride.

The quandary of which rider - Armstrong or the 2007 Tour winner Alberto Contador - would be the team leader has been the talk of the Tour. During Stage 3, the drama escalated. Armstrong and his teammates had not stayed together when the peloton split not far from the end.

Armstrong was in the head of the peloton that zoomed toward the finish line, and that move catapulted him from 10th to second in the overall standings. Contador fell from second to fourth overall.

But on Tuesday, on the roads in and around Montpellier, the Astana team had to work together. They needed to if they wanted to finish first on the narrow, windy, bumpy roads of the time trial. That team cohesion is what Contador predicted.

"We're smart enough to know we have to come together, unite, if we want to win this Tour," Contador said in the first few days of the Tour.

And that's exactly what Astana did, and now it has four of the top five riders in the overall standings: Armstrong in second; Contador third, 19 seconds back; Andreas Kloden fourth, 23 seconds back; and Levi Leipheimer is fifth, 31 behind.

The road was also a little slick, with wicked crosswinds causing problems for many teams. Several riders lost control of their bikes when that wind hit them, crashing into a field on one of the turns. Other riders smacked the ground on the turns, which were tight and tricky to maneuver.

But Armstrong and his teammates were able to finish faster than any other team. The actor Ben Stiller arrived at the Astana bus to recognize that achievement. He came to congratulate Armstrong, who emerged from a three-and-a-half-year retirement last fall. It was a reminder of how Armstrong spent part of his time off: relaxing with the Hollywood elite.

Here at the Tour, Armstrong is the most famous person, hands down. A throng of fans stampeded to his team bus after Armstrong and Astana crossed the finish line. Those fans, joined by reporters, created a crowd 30-people deep as they tried to get a glimpse of or hear Armstrong.

"Is Armstrong in the yellow jersey?" yelled one fan as she sprinted to Armstrong's bus. "If he is, it will be the best thing to happen to the cycling."