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Lance Armstrong set to win seventh Tour

In another triumph for the Discovery Channel team in the Tour de France, a second support rider for Lance Armstrong won a stage and the entire group moved to the top of the team standings. Armstrong, who is seeking his seventh consecutive Tour victory and enjoyed a generally quiet day in the pack, sounded as pleased about the victory Wednesday by Paolo Savoldelli, an Italian, as he did about the one Sunday by George Hincapie, an American.

"It was surreal riding in and hearing on the radio that Paolo won the stage," he reported. "We said, `Paolo won, Paolo won! Do you believe that?"`

Discovery Channel also finished first in the team time trial two weeks ago and its bright hope for the future, Yaroslav Popovych, a 25-year-old Ukrainian, leads the young riders` competition. Although the team has come in for scattered criticism that it has not given Armstrong its usual dominant support throughout this 92nd Tour, the collective haul is unprecedented.