TOUR DE FRANCE Discovery Channel's Popovych wins stage

It was a good day in what has been a disappointing tour for the team.
CARCASSONNE, France (AP) -- If Lance Armstrong drops in on the Tour de France as expected next week, he'll have something to celebrate.
His Discovery Channel squad, struggling at its first Tour without the seven-time champion, had its first stage winner on Friday, in young Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych.
U.S. rider Floyd Landis kept the overall lead.
The now-retired Armstrong, a part owner of the Discovery squad, is expected at the race Tuesday or Wednesday, said team spokesman P.J. Rabice. Given the struggles they've faced, his ex-teammates could probably do with his advice and help.
Discovery came to the Tour with several riders touted as possible contenders to pick up where Armstrong left off.
Good start
George Hincapie, who rode with the Texan on all seven of his wins, got the team off to a quick start by placing second in the opening short time trial and by taking the overall race lead the next day.
But it was all downhill from there. Discovery flunked the first big test of the Tour, failing to place any riders in the top 15 in the first long time trial last weekend.
And hopes of a rebound seemed all but dashed when Hincapie and other Discovery riders melted on the hardest day in the Pyrenees on Thursday.
What a difference a day makes.
Popovych's stylish win Friday -- he rode alone to the finish in the medieval walled city of Carcassonne -- could not have come at a better time, especially since Discovery had just lost two riders who dropped out of the Tour with injuries earlier in the day.
"Emergency! We were just desperate," said Discovery's 40-year-old veteran Russian rider, Viatceslav Ekimov.
Tough day
Stage 12 took the Tour out of the Pyrenees. The sun was scorching, the terrain still tricky, with one moderately hard climb early on and other hills after that. Several groups of riders, looking to triumph on the French national holiday of Bastille Day, tried to ride off ahead of the main pack of riders, only to be reeled back in.
But Popovych and three other riders from rival teams succeeded where the others failed. As Carcassonne approached, with their lead over the main pack at more than four minutes, it became clear that one of them would be emerge as the winner.
Popovych made certain it would be him by shaking off his fellow riders with repeated bursts of speed on the city's outskirts. He sped over the last mile and a quarter alone and, as he crossed the line, repeatedly made the sign of the cross on his chest.
Only that morning, Discovery's savvy race manager, Johan Bruyneel, had sought to rally his riders. Even though the overall Tour title looks out of reach for Discovery, there are still stages left to win before the finish in Paris on July 23.
"This morning, coming out of the bus, Johan told me, 'Right, you need to go and win a stage.' Now, that's done," Popovych said. "We're going to use our imagination to do some beautiful things in the stages that are left."
The 26-year-old, who won the white jersey awarded to the Tour's best young rider last year, had started the day in 23rd place, 9 minutes behind Landis.
He moved up to 10th place, 4:15 behind Landis, a far smaller deficit that revives his chances of a high placing in Paris -- if he rides better in the Alps next week than he did in the Pyrenees.
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