Lance Armstrong led his US Postal troops to a devastating victory in the 69km fourth stage time trial of the Tour de France on Wednesday to hand an historic yellow jersey to team-mate Victor Hugo Pena.

In second place was the ONCE team of Spaniard Joseba Beloki, one of Armstrong's main rivals, who finished at 30secs adrift after having set an impressive time to push Ibanesto.com off the provisional standings.

Bianchi, the Italian team of 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich, placed third at 43.

Pena, who won national swimming titles before following in his father's cycling footsteps, became the first Colombian to pull on cycling's best-known jersey as US Postal took the first eight places in the overall standings.

And the 29-year-old time trial specialist said he liked to think of Wednesday's achievement as the end result of being exposed to nearly two decades of following the exploits of Colombian riders on the Tour.

"I remember when Colombia sent a team to the Tour for the first time in 1983," Pena recalled before explaining why he ditched swimming to win his place on one of the world's top cycling teams.

"We used to sit up and listen to the radio. I remember the slogan at the time. It was 'we're off to conquer Europe'.

"Today, somehow I feel like I've helped to achieve that."

He added: "I'm always telling the other guys in the team that Colombia is just like a South American version of Belgium. People are mad about cycling.

"We are probably more known for the good climbers we've produced, but I grew up watching my father, who was a track cyclist.

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