Lance Armstrong’s inscrutable grin looked like a real smile yesterday after a superb stage in every respect for his Discovery Channel team.

Giro d’Italia champion Paolo Savoldelli, won this, the longest stage of the Tour de France. Another teammate, Yaroslav Popovych, remained in the white jersey of the best young rider, and Armstrong stayed comfortably in the lead, earning the 79th yellow jersey of his career. The mark tied him for second place in the history books with Bernard Hinault, and only disaster will keep him from collecting four more before the Tour winds up in Paris on Sunday.

Throughout most of the 240 kilometer stage, the Texan clowned around with TV crews, joked with teammates, and may have even enjoyed the quaint bridges and sprawling sunflower fields that make up the landscape between Pau and Revel. “We all looked at each other and asked each other, ‘Did he just say that Paolo won the stage?’ “Armstrong said. “It just keeps getting better.”

With so many Discovery Channel riders finishing near the front of the stage, they are now first in the team rankings.

Savoldelli, who bounced back from a nearly career-ending back injury to win the Giro for a second time this year, is as soft-spoken and deferential as the rest of his teammates. But like George Hincapie did on Sunday, the Italian took advantage of Armstrong’s lead to leave his captain and join the escape group.

The group of 17 riders took off at the beginning of the stage and built a massive lead over the peloton. At one point, the margin reached 24 minutes, but still not nearly large enough to cause any concern in Armstrong’s group. The nearest thing to a threat was represented by Oscar Sevilla (T-Mobile), who started the day in 25th place, 38:51 behind Armstrong.

Eight riders broke away from the escape group with about 20 kilometers to ride. That group dwindled to four on Category 3 Cote de St Ferreol climb, nine kilometers from the finish – Savoldelli, Sebastien Hinault (Credit Agricole), Kurt-Asle Arvesen (CSC), and Simon Gerrans (AG2R). They took pulls at the front in succession to build their lead over the last five kilometers.

Savoldelli and Hinault attacked and got a gap, but Hinault refused to work with the Italian and their effort of wills allowed Arvesen to catch up. He tore past the duo with just two kilometers to approached the finish alone. But Hinault and Savoldelli were just behind him and, in the last hundred meters, Savoldelli stole past the bewildered Norwegian and raised his arms in triumph.

As it has been in past years, the Tour’s winner is often all but declared by the time it rolls out of the Pyrenees, and younger teammates are set free. Ten years ago, a 23-year-old rider sprinted ahead to get noticed on his Motorola team, and got a second-place in Revel; now that man is well on his way to sealing a seventh Tour de France victory.

Indeed, the talk of this Tour has already turned to its future. Who will take Armstrong’s place next year? Alexandre Vinokourov (TMobile) made his bid known on Tuesday, with his team announcing that he would leave the squad led by Jan Ullrich at the end of the season. Yesterday, he padded his resume with an impressive attack on the final climb. The attack was planned by T-Mobile to give Ullrich a chance to gain time over the second- and third place racers in the Tour, Ivan Basso (CSC) and Mikael Rasmussen (Rabobank).

The attack split the group, but the main contenders stayed together. Two top-10 riders were caught, with Cadel Evans (Davitamon) and Floyd Landis (Phonak) losing 20 seconds. Vinokourov moved into seventh place, while Evans and Landis dropped to eighth and ninth, respectively.

Armstrong can now count the days left in his final Tour on one hand, and he has yet to win a stage. Even though he has a good shot at winning Saturday’s time trial in St. Etienne, all eyes will be looking for him at the finish line of today’s 189-kilometer ride from Albi to Mende. For if Armstrong has proved one thing in his career, it is that enough is never enough.