Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano pulled on the leader's yellow jersey in the Tour de France today after his Spanish ONCE team dominated the 67.5km fourth stage team time trial.
Gonzalez de Galdeano, who is renowned for his time trial abilities, had been sitting 12th and 26 seconds adrift of overnight race leader Erik Zabel.
ONCE’s winning time of 1hr 19 min 49 sec over the tricky course from Epernay to Chateau Thierry proved enough to hold off the challenge of Lance Armstrong's US Postal team who finished 16 seconds adrift.
The Danish CSC team of French hope Laurent Jalabert came third at 46 seconds while Italian outfit Fassa Bartolo were fourth at just over a minute.
ONCE’s performance sees Joseba Beloki, who has finished third overall in the past two Tours, move second behind his teammate at just four seconds.
Armstrong is seven seconds adrift in third while another ONCE rider, German Jorg Jaksche, is fourth.
AFP