The team time trial always causes a major reshuffling of the overall standings at the Tour de France. This year the U.S. Postal Service was the strongest team on the stage and we now have a better look at who the real contenders for the yellow jersey are going to be.

Lance Armstrong likes the team time trial and sees it as an effective way to show everyone the USPS team’s collective strength. George Hincapie is a very happy man tonight because he has wanted to win the Tour team time trial ever since it was reintroduced to the race in 2000. He is well suited to the event and was a member of the 1992 US Olympic team time trial squad before turning pro with Motorola. Victor Hugo Peña had a lot to gain by winning today, as beating Lance in the prologue by one second meant he was the top-placed man on the team and is now the new leader of the Tour.

It’s great that Peña is going to wear the yellow jersey for at least one day. He, like every rider on the USPS Tour squad, is there to sacrifice his personal goals for that of the team’s overall goal: seeing that Lance wins a fifth Tour de France. But by putting in a great prologue performance and helping the team to win the team time trial, he did his job and gets to reap a huge reward. The first Columbian ever to wear the yellow jersey turns 29 tomorrow, as well. What a way to spend your birthday.

Going into the team time trial, Lance and Johan Bruyneel wanted to win, but if something went wrong, they knew the team needed to be within one minute of the stage winner’s time. Lance would still have been in contention even if the team finished with up to a two-minute deficit, but any more would have spelled trouble.

Applying the USPS rationale to other teams, Bianchi and ONCE kept their leaders in the hunt for the yellow jersey by finishing within one minute of stage’s winning time, but Telekom’s Santiago Botero (now 1:32 behind Armstrong) is in a precarious position. He’s not out of it yet, but he can’t afford to lose much more time. Saeco’s team leader, Gilberto Simoni, on the other hand, is effectively out of contention for the yellow jersey after his team finished 17th of 22 teams and lost just over three minutes.

Tyler Hamilton’s situation is completely up in the air. His CSC team did reasonably well in the team time trial, and Tyler even appeared to be able to ride out of the saddle sometimes, but he is now 1:44 behind Lance Armstrong. Healthy and 1:44 behind, Tyler could still have a high placing, but if he slips further behind as the mountains begin, or if he can’t support his teammate Carlos Sastre (2:07 behind Armstrong), he will most likely withdraw.