Armstrong Second in Opening Tour Stage

NOIRMOUTIER-EN-L'ILE, France, July 2 -- Dave Zabriskie was 17 years old when his mother drove him to a junior race in Colorado named after cycling icon Lance Armstrong. Zabriskie won that day, but never expected to have a chance to compete against Armstrong, much less best him on a given day.

Lance Armstrong has won the Tour de France six times, but never expected to have a chance to break the back of one of his most durable rivals on the first day of the race.

The two American riders made the exceptional seem routine in the dramatic Tour-opening time trial Saturday, owning it from A to Z.

Under overcast skies, with a slightly favorable tailwind, Zabriskie, 26, of Salt Lake City, set a Tour speed record to win the stage. He has now won stages in three consecutive Grand Tours, the three-week races that are the most prestigious in cycling.

Armstrong passed Germany's Jan Ullrich about two miles from the finish line of the 11.8-mile course and came in just two seconds short of Zabriskie's victorious time of 20 minutes 51 seconds.

The Texan was racing something aside from the digital timer: speculation that he wasn't totally prepared to defend his title.

"I was hungry today, I really was," Armstrong said. "I'm not here to ride a retirement race. I wanted to show the world I'm committed to this race. I think today sort of proved that."

Four Americans finished in the top 10 as Armstrong's Discovery Channel teammate George Hincapie placed fourth, 57 seconds back, and Phonak team leader Floyd Landis came in sixth, 1:02 behind.

The win marked the latest chapter in Zabriskie's comeback from serious crashes that began the 2003 and 2004 seasons, setbacks that he softly opined "might be the reason you didn't hear much about me" previously.

His face still bears the scars from the day in March 2004, when he skidded on a downhill and fell at high speed on coarse gravel at the Redlands Classic race in California. He also suffered a concussion and part of his scalp remains numb. The year before, he was hit by a sport-utility vehicle while training in Utah and broke his leg and arm.

Zabriskie, in his first year with the Danish CSC team, called the win "an amazing accomplishment for me," but it wasn't completely unanticipated. He finished fifth in the world championship time trial last year.

"It's a matter of concentration and being able to go hard by yourself," he said.