Armstrong, team unhappy

Associated Press

REIMS, France

Lance Armstrong’s flat tire has done more than just deflate some of his hopes for another Tour de France victory. It’s also caused a bit of second-guessing within his RadioShack team.

Before Wednesday’s flat fourth stage, won by Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi in a sprint, Armstrong said he and his teammates could have better managed the cobblestones where he punctured a tire and lost time the previous day.

Wednesday’s ride didn’t shake up the overall standings, with Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara retaining the yellow jersey, and many riders were still pondering the blows suffered by Armstrong and RadioShack on Tuesday.

“In hindsight, as a team, I think we all agree we could have ridden differently yesterday,” Armstrong said. “You can look at the position we went into the cobbles [in], you can look at perhaps the amount of the time we spent on the sides, which I think has an effect.”

He said “you obviously get more flats” on the roadsides instead of the cobblestones. Some riders use the sides to avoid the jarring bumps over the stones. While Armstrong took about 45 seconds to get a new tire, rivals like Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck zoomed ahead to gain seconds that will be valuable when the three-week race reaches the mountains later on.

It was a far cry from Armstrong’s seven-year domination at the Tour from 1999 to 2005, when he often lavished praise on teammates for their help in his victories — and when luck, more often than not, was on his side.

Now, he’s trailing, and the blame is to be shared.

“Like they say, you create your own luck, and we created our bad luck yesterday,” Armstrong said. “We made our luck, we can’t blame anybody but ourselves.”

Armstrong received a huge fan ovation as he left the team bus Wednesday. He took so long getting to the start line that he didn’t sign in at the starter’s podium — and got a $94 fine for it.

The overall standings remained the same after Wednesday’s 95.4-mile ride from Cambrai to the champagne capital Reims — a mostly flat trek that was tailor-made for sprinters.

Lampre rider Petacchi earned his second stage victory this year in a mass sprint, with Armstrong and other title contenders finishing safely in the pack with the same time: 3 hours, 34 minutes, 55 seconds. Cancellara did too, and retained the yellow jersey.

Armstrong crossed 36th, Contador was 32nd and Schleck placed 58th.

Johan Bruyneel, RadioShack’s manager, said the Texan and the team “are all disappointed” because of his loss of time against Schleck and Contador — two strong climbers who will be tough to get ahead of.