With Columbia-HTC driving the split in the field Monday in Stage 3 of the Tour de France, and with Lance Armstrong making the selection while teammate Alberto Contador missed it, some interesting questions are set to be answered Tuesday in the team time trial.

1. Will Columbia-HTC have enough gas left to win the TTT and put Tony Martin in the yellow jersey? Martin, who finished second in the Tour du Suisse, is 33 seconds behind race leader Fabian Cancellara, in second place overall. Columbia-HTC forged the split Monday when the peloton hit the crosswinds, with all nine riders making the selection.

The team did a great deal of the work in the final 30 K, including the big leadout for Mark Cavendish to get another stage win (and mime a phone call to bring attention to the new sponsor, HTC). But the team will have to do it all over again today to put 34 seconds into Cancellara’s Saxo Bank team and take the yellow.  

2. How will Astana work together with Armstrong now ahead of Contador? Contador put a big stamp on the race with his runner-up finish in the opening stage individual time trial, not only putting himself at the top of the list of favourites but putting himself first in the pecking order at Astana, seemingly ending the debate about who the team leader is. But that could have changed Monday with Armstrong making the split, and teammates Contador, Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer missing it. All three were ahead of Armstrong after the opening stage; now just three days later all three are behind Armstrong.

A strong ride by Astana, which on paper has the most powerful team, could put Armstrong in the yellow jersey, but the team will have to ride cohesively and selflessly to do so and put aside any potential conflict about the team leadership.

To get the yellow for Armstrong, Astana would have to finish 41 seconds ahead of Saxo and eight ahead of Columbia-HTC.

3. Will Saxo Bank ride well enough to keep Cancellara in yellow? With a 33-second lead on Columbia-HTC’s Martin and 40 on Astana’s Armstrong, Saxo has some time to give up, but not a lot. Saxo could challenge Astana, Columbia-HTC and Garmin-Slipstream for the stage win in the TTT.