Lance Armstrong hailed his team's “perfect performance” despite narrowly missing out on the yellow jersey.

Needing to overturn a gap of 40 seconds with race leader Fabian Cancellara and his Saxo Bank team, the seven-time tour winner missed out by just 0.138sec.

But as the fight for the yellow jersey hots up, the more intriguing battle remains between the American and his Astana team leader Alberto Contador.

The two go into today's stage in second and third place separated by 19 seconds. Although little should change over the next two days, Friday's assault on the 7,350ft summit of Arcalis could bring matters to a head.

Armstong said: "I told Alberto yesterday: 'Don't worry, I think we'll win but what we have to do is ride a perfect race'. We can say we did that. I wanted to be one of the strongest in the race and I think I am. I may not be strong enough to win but somebody on this team will. After Friday's climb it becomes a different situation and we'll have to talk then."

Until then he is prepared to make conciliatory noises. "There are two ways of defining leadership - you can be the strongest one, the leader who wins, but, if you're not the strongest, you can be team leader as you have the experience. That might be my role."