TOUR DE FRANCE : U.S. Riders Hampsten, Armstrong Move Up

Andy Hampsten of Boulder, Colo., and Lance Armstrong of Plano, Tex., helped propel the American Motorola team to a third-place finish in Wednesday’s 50-mile team time trial during the Tour de France.

Hampsten moved to 13th place overall, 1 minute 10 seconds behind new Tour leader Mario Cipollini of Italy, who led his GB-MG team to victory in the fourth stage from Vannes to Avranches.

Armstrong, 21, the youngest of 180 competitors, moved to 15th overall, 1:15 behind. Veteran Steve Bauer of Canada is Motorola’s leading rider in 11th, but Hampsten, fourth last year, is expected to move into the top 10 once the Tour reaches the mountain stages.

Although Cipollini replaced Wilfreid Nelissen of Belgium as the Tour leader, the stage belonged to Miguel Indurain of Spain, who is trying for his third consecutive victory. Indurain’s Banesto team finished seventh, but he gained time on Italian contenders Claudio Chiappucci and Gianni Bugno. Indurain, in 25th place, said before the stage that he was concerned about losing a few minutes to the Italians, whose teams are supposed to be stronger than Banesto.

Instead, Indurain gained 12 seconds on Chiappucci, who is 16th overall, and 25 seconds on Bugno, who is 31st. Another contender, Tony Rominger of Switzerland, fell to 88th, 3:06 behind, when his Clas team sputtered.

“The deficit that we had wasn’t excessive,” Indurain said. “I have reason to be confident.”

Indurain is not expected to make a serious move until the Tour’s first individual time trial Monday at Lac de Madine near the city of Nancy. He has not lost a major time trial in two years and uses them the way Greg LeMond once did to win stage races.

Cipollini will start today’s fifth stage six seconds ahead of Nelissen and 21 seconds ahead of third-place rider Alex Zulle of Switzerland.

Said Cipollini: “It’s a dream. Pinch me. A victory in a stage on Sunday, and Wednesday the leader’s jersey. That shows I am not a tourist in this race.”