The Tour de France is all about seizing opportunities whenever they arise, and that’s exactly what US Postal, T-Mobile, and Phonak did during Stage 3. The crash that took Euskaltel-Euskadi leader Iban Mayo down happened before the first section of cobblestones even started, and that was exactly the opportunity leaders like Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, and Tyler Hamilton were looking for.

You have to remember that Armstrong isn’t the only one who would benefit by leaving Mayo behind, which is why we saw a cooperative effort from USPS, T-Mobile, and Phonak at the front in the final 50 kilometers of today’s stage. Their efforts prevented the peloton from regrouping prior to the second section of cobblestones, and by the end of the day Mayo finished a full four minutes behind stage winner Jean-Patrick Nazon.

The fact the significant crash of the day occurred prior to the beginning of the cobblestones should give you and indication of how hard riders were fighting to stay up front. There’s a real advantage to being among the top ten riders to reach the cobblestones because it allows you to pick the best line and reduces the chance someone else will lose control near you and cause you to crash. In many ways, the final kilometers prior to cobblestones are the most dangerous; once you’re on the cobbles, it’s just a matter of keeping your speed up and hoping luck is on your side.

Lance, Ullrich, and Hamilton were all fortunate today to avoid crashes and punctures. While their teams had to put forth some serious effort to maintain and increase the gap to the trailing groups in the final 50 kilometers, the Liberty Seguros team of Roberto Heras had to dig even deeper to rejoin the front group. The Euskaltel Euskadi team, however, was forced to do more work than anyone else in an effort to limit their losses. Besides the Credit Agricole team, they were the only men who had a vested interest in chasing.

Between Mayo’s crash and the four-minute time gap between the two main portions of the peloton, the situation for tomorrow’s team time trial looks good for the US Postal Service. Eukaltel Euskadi is sitting in last place in the team classification and will be the first team to start the team time trial. Even though there is a limit to how much time they can lose, they won’t have any information on how other teams are doing. As a result, they will most likely feel forced to ride all-out because they will have no way of knowing whether teams like USPS, Phonak, T-Mobile, or Liberty Seguros will suffer from mechanicals or crashes.

The USPS would like to repeat their team trial victory from 2003 and take a little time out of Jan Ullrich and Tyler Hamilton in the process. Both rivals, however, have strong teams and will likely do well in Stage 4. Perhaps even more unfortunate than the limit placed on the maximum time loss in this event is the fixed amounts of time each team loses based on their placing on the stage.

The first placed team records their finishing time, but the second placed team records a time 20 seconds slower, no matter how big the actual time gap is. Third place is 30 seconds back, fourth is 40 seconds back, etc. Once you get below 10^th place on the stage, the time gaps are only five seconds per place rather than 10 seconds. This is unfortunate for the stronger teams because they will not get the opportunity to fully benefit from their strength and hard work. Winning the team time trial by a minute is a great show of strength, but a wasted effort if you can only keep 20 seconds of it.

Nevertheless, those are the rules and it is still in US Postal’s best interest to win the stage. With perhaps the strongest Tour squad the team has ever assembled, they have a very good chance of doing just that.