CREDIT ARGICOLE defended Stuart O'Grady's yellow jersey by pipping ONCE in the team time-trial at Bar Le Duc yesterday.
The Spaniards have not been beaten in the team event this year and looked set for another win until O'Grady's team, last to set off, streaked in 31 seconds ahead.
The win means the French team occupy the top three in the general classification with Jens Voight and Bobby Julich chasing O'Grady, who extended his lead to 26 seconds.
Lance Armstrong's US Postal Service team survived the fall of two of their riders to come fourth, one minute 26 seconds off the pace.
In the time-trial, a team is measured on the performance of the first five to finish so Armstrong, with six riders still with him, could have carried on. But the Texan decided to allow the pair to catch up, a decision which may have cost his team a place in the top three.
Santiago Botero's Kelme finished 12 seconds behind USPS while Jan Ullrich and Telekom were delayed by Erik Zabel's puncture.
Details in SPORTS ROUND-UP
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)