(07-05) 04:00 PDT Monaco --

Lance Armstrong celebrated the Fourth of July by "wearing" the yellow jersey again for about 15 minutes. Then a young chap who was 14 when Armstrong won the first of his seven successive Tour de France titles a decade ago squelched any notion that the Texan would stay in yellow

Indeed, Armstrong led briefly. But, by day's end, Tony Martin, a 24-year-old German riding for the American Columbia Highroad team, would be only the first of nine riders to post a faster finishing time than the 37-year-old Texan on the hilly, challenging, 9.3-mile loop through this glitzy cliff-side enclave for the uber-rich on the Mediterranean coast. In fact, three of his own Astana teammates beat him, including Levi Leipheimer of Santa Rosa, no spring chicken at 35, either

But that's far more indicative of how strong Astana is than how weak Armstrong was Saturday in his return to the world's biggest, hardest and most famous bicycle race, which he once dominated like no other man has. The team's unstated - but not unrealistic - goal is to make history by occupying all three podium spots on the Champs Elysees in Paris on July 26

Armstrong was quick to remind the media huddle around him that he "didn't have any big illusions" about his chances in the first of the Tour's 21 stages, saying: "I didn't expect to win. I didn't expect a super, super performance. But, relative to Tony Martin and to Levi (Leipheimer), both (time-trial) specialists, I thought it was good.

"It was hard to find a rhythm, but I'm happy with the ride," he insisted, long before he found out he'd wake up today a respectable 40 seconds behind Olympic time-trial gold medalist Fabian Cancellara and, more significantly, just 22 seconds slower than fellow Astana ace Alberto Contador, the betting favorite to be wearing yellow three weeks from now. "What a beautiful race, what a beautiful setting. The people were great. The best way to sum it up is I had a good time."

But yes, he admitted, it felt strange, a "foreign environment" even, to be back in the fray in France after a four-year absence.

When Armstrong won No. 7 in 2005, he swore he was done "forever." But he missed the camaraderie of the team bus and, truth to tell, the suffering that big-time cycling requires. While there's no doubt his cancer-fighting mission figured hugely in the decision to put himself through the hell the Tour can be - 2,160 miles remain - he hadn't gotten competing out of his system.

Armstrong also believed the outcome of the 2008 Tour, won by former Team CSC domestique Carlos Sastre, was bogus, with his Astana mates Contador and Leipheimer sidelined because the Kazakhstan-funded team wasn't invited, punishment for many doping transgressions that occurred before former U.S. Postal Service/Discovery Channel Team director Johan Bruyneel took the reins.

Well, he may have been right about Sastre. The defending champion came in 21st, 66 seconds behind Team Saxo Bank's Cancellara, who claimed an opening-day victory in the Tour for the third time in the last six years.

The Swiss' triumph is a good omen for both Contador and Armstrong. Cancellara prevailed in the Prologue 2004, the summer Armstrong became the first rider to claim as many as six Tour championships. And he did it again in 2007, Contador's breakthrough year.

Whether there's real tension within the Astana ranks remains to be seen, what with Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden, twice the Tour's runner-up and briefly Saturday's leader, too, all seemingly in fine form.

Although short, this test was unusually challenging, given the steamy conditions and the 4 1/2-mile climb straight away up to the Cote de Beausoleil, a small portion of it at 10 percent. Nobody could remember any Tour kicking off with such an incline.

"Straight away uphill and, personally, I don't like to start hard," said Leipheimer, who's 30 seconds back of Cancellara, 12 behind Contador and eight off Kloden's pace. "You're torturing yourself in the beginning and then you have to kill yourself, until you're bleeding out the ears. It's a controlled massacre."

Both he and Contador insisted Astana is united in a single goal, getting one of its own in yellow to stay.

"I think the guys on this team like all this drama," Leipheimer said. "We like the fact that people are trying to throw us off our game. If we can pull this off and win the race, it's going to be satisfying, very satisfying."