The real question (at least, according to the Internet) was: would there be friction between Armstrong and Contador? As it turns out, the answer was NO (the team rode beautifully from start to finish, with Armstrong taking strong pulls and Contador taking minimal pulls as the protected leader of the team). But I could have told you that before the stage even started–it would have been stupid for the team to fracture during the TTT! Everyone loses in that situation.

With Astana’s convincing victory in the TTT today, it made it that much harder for the other GC contenders to catch the Armstrong/Contador (Armstrontador?) pairing. Though Saxo Bank’s strong showing allowed Cancellara to keep yellow, Armstrong sits in 2nd place by a fraction of a second. Contador is not far back either.

For now, Team Astana sits in an unusually commanding position (for the first week of the TdF) over the rest of the peleton. My prediction is that Cavendish will win approximately eight consecutive stages, and then Armstrontador will duke it out in the mountains. If anyone not on Team Astana wants to win this race, they’ll have to have some special moments in the mountains and the last time trial. It’s Astana’s race to lose.