Lance Armstrong's team is wary its great start is too good too early in the Tour de France.
Armstrong consolidated a healthy lead in Sunday's second stage, safely finishing 63rd in the main pack while 10 riders fell during the 181.5km trek from Challans to Les Essarts.
Armstrong, going for a record seventh straight Tour victory, was second overall and led Jan Ullrich of Germany and Ivan Basso of Italy by more than a minute, with Kazakhstan rider Alexandre Vinokourov 51 seconds behind.
PHOTO: AP
George Hincapie, a vital cog in all of Armstrong's Tour wins, believed the race shouldn't be as easy as it has been in the first two days.
"The race is three weeks long, there's a long way to go," Hincapie said on Sunday. "We're not that confident."
He felt Ullrich's T-Mobile team, which included Vinokourov and Andreas Kloeden, last year's runner-up, was poised for a backlash.
PHOTO: AP
"They're fighters and they'll keep on fighting. There's no rest until Paris," Hincapie said.
Ullrich's ambitions for a second Tour victory were dealt a severe blow on Friday when he crashed into the back of his team car during a training run, cutting his neck close to the jugular vein.
He looked demoralized during Saturday's time trial -- conceding 66 seconds to Armstrong -- but appeared determined again on Sunday while placing 19th just behind the front-runners in a dangerous sprint stage won by Belgian Tom Boonen.
Boonen won in 3 hours, 51 minutes, 31 seconds, edging Norway's Thor Hushovd and Australian Robbie McEwen in a hair-raising dash to the line.
Armstrong didn't think Ullrich's accident would keep the 1997 Tour winner down for long.
"I don't put a lot of stock into what happened," Armstrong said. "I crashed 10 days ago, and it took me four or five days to recover. He'll be better in a few days' time. The race goes to Germany, so he has to get better."
With a team time trial on Tuesday and the torturous Alps and Pyrenees looming, Armstrong's rivals still have time to catch up.
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