Trial Separation for Armstrong?

Lance Armstrong’s bid for a fifth consecutive Tour de France title begins in earnest today in team time trials. By day’s end, a member of Armstrong’s team could be wearing the leader’s yellow jersey.

That would put him in excellent position before the race heads into the arduous climbs up the Alps on Saturday.

Armstrong conserved his strength Tuesday and finished 69th in the third stage, won by Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi. Armstrong is 12th overall, 19 seconds behind leader France’s Jean-Patrick Nazon.

Today, squads will race separately against the clock over a 43-mile course. Each rider gets his team’s time, meaning Armstrong’s challengers -- or Armstrong himself -- could lose vital seconds or minutes if their squads perform badly.

Today “is really the first decisive move of the race,” said Dan Osipow, general manager of Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service team.

“With a bad team time trial, you can lose a handful of minutes and where do you find those minutes again when the Alps come?” he said. “We want to gain time on all of our rivals.”

Armstrong’s squad races last because it leads the overall standings among the Tour’s 22 teams. That will allow the riders to see how Armstrong’s rivals did. “It’s a big advantage,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong is trying to match the record of Spain’s Miguel Indurain, who won five consecutive Tours from 1991 to ’95.

He has played it safe so far, trying to avoid accidents that pose a constant risk in the first week when riders are fresh and sprinters try to make the most of relatively flat and fast stages.

On Tuesday, Petacchi sped to the finish in a sprint marked by another crash. It was his second stage win in three days.

Three of Armstrong’s teammates finished grouped around the star rider.

“The team did a great job in protecting Lance,” team spokesman Jogi Muller said. “They’re still nervous, there are still crashes, still lucky not be involved.”

Petacchi beat Latvia’s Romans Vainsteins and Spain’s Oscar Freire in the third of the three-week Tour’s 20 stages. Petacchi also won the first stage Sunday, which was marked by a crash involving about 35 riders. Armstrong was among them but was not seriously hurt.

Nazon took the overall lead by picking up time bonuses in sprint stages along the 104-mile route. He finished in 14th place, in the same time as the winner, to become the first Frenchman since Francois Simon in 2001 to wear the yellow jersey.

“People will remember that I’m the first French rider in a yellow jersey at this centennial,” said Nazon, of the French Jean Delatour team. “It has happened so quickly. I’m having a lot of difficulty understanding what’s happening.”

Injured U.S. rider Tyler Hamilton showed plenty of grit Tuesday, riding with a broken collarbone from Sunday’s crash. He finished 43rd and was 10th overall. Before the injury, Hamilton had been considered another of Armstrong’s potential rivals.

“I’m feeling about 80-85%,” Hamilton said. “There is just this kind of dull, numbing pain which nags away at me.”

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At a Glance

Highlights from the third stage:

* Stage: Charleville-Mezieres to Saint-Dizier, a 104-mile ride toward eastern France.

* Winner: Italy’s Alessandro Petacchi, in 3 hours, 27 minutes, 39 seconds.

* How others fared: Four-time champion Lance Armstrong finished in 69th place. 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich was 18th. Tyler Hamilton, riding despite a broken collarbone, was 43rd.

* Next stage: Joinville to Saint-Dizier, a 43-mile time trial in which teams set off in 5-minute intervals.

* On the Web: For live updates of each day’s Tour de France stage, complete standings, cyclist profiles and course information, go to latimes.com/tour.