Armstrong erased all but a sliver of his 40-second deficit to leader Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland in the fourth stage. The only thing separating him from the yellow jersey now is a fraction of a second.
"Boo-YA!!!" Armstrong wrote on Twitter. "Well, what can I say? The team was simply awesome today. Consistent, fluid, mistake-free. We love this event ... and are stoked to win."
The performance was reminiscent of Armstrong's dominance in the team time trial for the last three years of his string of victories from 1999 to 2005. This is his comeback year at the Tour after 3½ years of retirement.
The 37-year-old Texan plotted strategy with star teammate Alberto Contador before the stage to weed out potential rivals.
Astana was timed in 46 minutes, 29 seconds for the 24.2-mile ride in and around Montpellier. That was 18 seconds better than Garmin, with Saxo Bank third, 40 seconds back.
Armstrong entered the day 40 seconds behind Cancellara of Saxo Bank, meaning ownership of the yellow jersey came down to split seconds.
At the last intermediate time check (19 miles), Astana was 41 seconds faster than Saxo, putting Armstrong in the lead at that point and setting up the tense finale.
Armstrong and Cancellara share an overall time of 10 hours, 38 minutes, 7 seconds, although the Swiss rider was deemed a fraction ahead. Organizers examined Saturday's opening time trial in Monaco that was won by Cancellara. Those results were calculated to the thousandth of a second.
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