The veneer of invincibility returned to Astana on a soggy Saturday in Albi a week after their armor suffered near-fatal chinks when Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Klöden both saw their Tour hopes take a dive in a pair of crashes in stage 5.

Just four days after collapsing in tears at the finish line in Briançon, his morale as shredded as both of his knees, Vinokourov proved he has more Tour lives than a cat with a stunning victory in Albi.

The Kazakh attacker powered over the undulating course along a foggy Tarn Valley and clawed his way to ninth at 5:10 behind race leader Michael Rasmussen.

“For me, the Tour began today,” he said as all ears leaned in to hear the man from Kazakhstan. “There’s a new confidence in the team. The mountains await us. We will attack.”

You could hear a pin drop as Vinokourov spoke in his odd patois of grunts and whispers as he spoke to French television after winning his fourth career Tour stage victory and his first in a time trial.

“We will attack in the Pyrénées,” Vinokourov concluded. “We are in a good position. I think we can still win the Tour.”

Astana enjoyed its best day, pushing Andreas Klöden into fourth overall at 2:34 back and Andrey Kashechkin into sixth at 4:23.

That’s even more remarkable considering that both Klöden and Kashechkin crashed early on rain-slicked roads of the winding 54km course.

“I have a mixed feeling today. On the one hand, I finished third and my place in the overall ranking is now fourth. But on the other hand, I feel on my right side and that means new pains for me,” said Klöden, nursing a sore coccyx. “The team did a great performance today. I’m not surprised by the result of Vino. Everyone knows that he can be so good during the time trial.”

It didn’t take long for the rest of the peloton to realize Vinokourov and Co. are back at their best and they mean business.

“It’s obvious now that Vinokourov is back in the race. He’s dangerous in any race. We all know he wants to win the Tour,” said Team CSC’s Carlos Sastre, seventh overall at 4:45 back. “We saw two days ago he was feeling stronger. Now he’s going to attack. We’ll have to be alert in the Pyrenees and try to stay with him. It won’t be easy.”

Valverde, Pereiro philosophical
Alejandro Valverde saw his podium chances dashed after a disappointing performance that saw him finishing 47th at 6:08 back.

The Spanish sensation was hoping to stay within three minutes of the specialists, but he never expected to ride as poorly as he did on the wet roads of Albi. At the first time check at 18km, he had already forfeited 2:18 and lost 4:03 to Vino at 35km.

“I knew it was a bad day. This morning I felt good, but as of the time trial started, I felt that my legs were not that good and when my director communicated me the intermediate times, I understood that I was going to lose plenty of time today,” Valverde said. “But the Tour and cycling are like that: one day you win and the other one you lose.”

Valverde tried to put a philosophical spin on what is his third Tour start. He still hasn’t made it to Paris and he’s hoping to take the pressure off himself now and focus on regaining some lost terrain in the Pyrénées.

“I am here to learn and before being able to win the Tour, I believe that one has to learn to know it. As I had already said, this year the most important for me is to arrive in Paris, which is my first goal, and in the future, we will see if I am able to win it some day,” he said. “Now, three stages await us in the Pyrénées and we will see how each of us recovers, to start with me, and from there, which possibilities are left for us to achieve something.”

Caisse d’Epargne teammate Oscar Pereiro – the man poised to inherit the 2006 Tour crown if Floyd Landis loses in his bid to defend himself against doping allegations – said there’s still some fight to come.

“When I first saw my splits at the first time check to Vino, I was disappointed, but I kept fighting. I have to be satisfied with how things stand because I was afraid I could even lose more time,” said Pereiro, now 14th at 7:04 back. “We will analyze everything this evening ahead of the three mountain stages. There’s still a week and nothing’s finished.”

Mayo can’t cut the mustard
Iban Mayo shrugged off his poor TT performance with trademark indifference to media inquiries. The Basque climber stopped the clock at 46th at 6:04 slower and sunk like a rock, dropping from second to 12th at 5:48 back.

No worries, said Mayo at the finish line, he’s only here to win a stage in the Pyrénées.

“I already said I would lose a lot of time. Now I am approaching my favored terrain and we’ll see if I can’t win a stage,” Mayo said at the finish. “The time that I forfeited today I can gain back in the Pyrénées. We’ll see if I can score that stage victory that I want. If it’s to finish sixth or seventh in Paris, I’d prefer to win a stage.”