Stage One: Contador Lays Down the Law

Well, the story going into the Tour was whether Contador could trust his own team and whether the team will fracture in support of Lance instead. But Contador will control Astana as long as he is viewed as their best chance to win.

Mission accomplished. Astana had an awesome day in which four of their riders finished in the top ten, all of which are real contenders. But the name on top is Contador. He asserted himself as team captain, so for one day at least, Team Astana is Team Contador. Well done.

The other story is that we have often stated that no one can win the Tour in the first week, but it can be lost. Denis Menchov came into today as one of the primary contenders for the yellow jersey. He's not dead yet or anything, but he lost one minute and a half today, the only contender to lose so much time. It was not a good day for the Russian. Noted poor time trialist Carlos Sastre only lost a little over a minute. It was a bad day for Menchov, making it an even better day for Astana.