<table> </table> <strong>Christian Vande Velde </strong>won the time trial Wednesday and took the overall lead after the third stage of the Tour of Missouri.</p><p>Vande Velde, riding for Garmin-Chipotle, completed the hilly, 18-mile course through Branson in windy conditions in 39 minutes, 51 seconds.</p><p>Australia&#8217;s <strong>Michael Rogers </strong>(Team Columbia), a three-time world time trial champion, was second in 40:12, and Canada&#8217;s <strong>Svein Tuft </strong>(Symmetrics) followed in 40:24.</p><p>Vande Velde, the Boulder, Colo., rider who began the stage 24th, 20 seconds behind <strong>Mark Cavendish</strong>, took a 21-second margin over Rogers. Tuft was third, 44 seconds back.</p><p><strong>George Hincapie </strong>(Team Columbia), the defending race winner, moved into the fourth position, 1:03 seconds back with a fourth-place finish.</p><p>&#8220;I was surprised,&#8221; said Vande Velde, who averaged 27.13 mph. &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t feeling 100 percent confident, particularly the past two weeks after the national championships. I just don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve been riding that well.&#8221;</p><p>Rogers, who crashed out of the 2007 Tour de France while riding in the race lead, has endured a series of viruses.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m getting back to where I was,&#8221; said Rogers. &#8220;The time trial is one of the reasons I came to this race. It was the hardest time trial I&#8217;ve done this year. Second to the riders in this field, including Christian, is certainly a positive.&#8221;</p><p>Cavendish, a sprinting specialist, finished 41st in the stage, 4:09 behind the winner. He fell to 36th position, 3:49 behind.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">Armstrong talks </span></strong><br /> Astana team leader Johan Bruyneel, who was the team leader of U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel while Lance Armstrong was winning seven straight Tour de France championships, says he&#8217;s already begun discussions with his close friend.</p><p>&#8220;He won&#8217;t have a problem finding a team. But it&#8217;s clear that the relationship we have means that I can&#8217;t allow him to go to another team,&#8221; Bruyneel told reporters at the Spanish Vuelta. &#8220;For me it would be nice to be a part of this.&#8221;</p><p>Astana&#8217;s top rider, Alberto Contador, said it would not bother him for Armstrong to join the team, but American Levi Leipheimer said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to talk about it.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="infobox-head">Landis preparing </span></strong><br /> Floyd Landis, who won the 2006 Tour de France but had his title stripped away for a positive doping test, is looking to return in 2009 to ride for a team run by Momentum Sports Group.</p><p> Team director Mike Tamayo, at the Tour of Missouri this week, acknowledged they were negotiating with Landis.</p><p>Landis&#8217; two-year suspension ends Jan. 30, 2009. Landis, 32, has said he was victimized by an anti-doping system he says is rigged against athletes. It is unclear whether Landis would ever be allowed to ride in the Tour de France by the race&#8217;s organizers. He has had hip-replacement surgery since his Tour win.</p><p></div>