Belgian Steels Win in Stage 3

N A N T E S, France, July 3 — -- Belgian fast-man Tom Steels won Stage 3 of the Tour de France today, his second in as many days, just edging Germans Marcel Wust and Erik Zabel. David Millar retained the leader’s yellow jersey, despite a crash near the finish that delayed him momentarily and cost him 8 seconds of his leading margin.

Steels’ finishing time was 3 hours, 37 minutes, 51 seconds.

“The team is working very well together,” said Steels, who races for Mapei. “We’ve won two now—why not a third?”

American Lance Armstrong remains in second place standing overall, still four seconds behind Millar, but lost time to several key rivals. The shakeup came as the pack split near the finish, with a small, faster first group crossing the line eight seconds before the rest.

Millar Still in Yellow

Millar would have lost his yellow jersey to defending championArmstrong if he had not managed to get back into the race. Heremained in first place, four seconds ahead of Armstrong, whofinished 63rd Tuesday as part of the second pack.

Among these early finishers were French ace Laurent Jalabert and German Jan Ullrich, who is Armstrong’s main rival this year. Armstrong finished in the second group, along with Millar, and several other contenders, including Swiss Alex Zulle and Spaniard Abraham Olano.

As a result, Jalabert is now just two seconds behind Armstrong, in third place, while Ullrich is just three seconds behind, in fourth place. These slim margins could disappear entirely during tomorrow’s team time trial, a brutal test that favors both Armstrong’s team, the U.S. Postal Service and Ullrich’s team, German Telekom.

U.S. Postal Team Among Favorites

Armstrong’s U.S. Postal team will be among the favorites to winthe time trial, but he thinks that the race would be wideopen.

“We have a good team, but it’s still too early to tell,”Armstrong said before setting off today. “We are just one name ona very long list. ”