La Mongie, France ? Lance Armstrong’s win in the opening mountain stage of the Tour de France wasn’t the stunning victory rivals have gotten used to.

The three-time champion beat Spain’s Joseba Beloki by just 7 seconds in Thursday’s leg from Pau to this ski station in the Pyrenees.

And although he moved into the overall race lead, his 1:12 advantage over Beloki in the standings was unspectacular.

Armstrong, however, was happy.

“I’m very satisfied,” he said after taking the overall leader’s yellow jersey from Spaniard Igor Gonzalez Galdeano.

For one thing, Armstrong proved he remains the favorite to win the Tour, silencing those who thought his defeat in Monday’s time trial showed he was weak.

Also, the Texan appeared to win the 158-kilometer (97.96-mile) stage without major effort, apart from the final sprint to the finish line.

That suggested he may be saving energy for Friday’s longer and tougher leg. It ends with an exceptionally difficult climb, similar to those Armstrong has used in recent years to leave his opponents stranded.

“The last three years I did attack” in the opening mountain stage, he said. “I didn’t attack today. It just felt very different.”

Although demanding, Thursday’s climb to La Mongie wasn’t hard enough to prevent rivals, such as Beloki, keeping up with Armstrong most of the way.

It wasn’t as difficult as the ride to L’Alpe d’Huez, which last year saw Armstrong open a 2:34 lead over his top challenger, Jan Ullrich. And it wasn’t as grueling as Friday’s final stretch to the Plateau de Beille, which should be a highlight of this year’s Tour.

Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service teammate Roberto Heras did most of the work on Thursday. He led Armstrong and Beloki in a break from the other race favorites, including Gonzalez Galdeano, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) before the finish.

Heras, from Spain, set a blistering pace and the trio soon overtook Frenchman Laurent Jalabert, who had been in front for the last 120 kilometers (74.4 miles).

Heras moved aside in the last few hundred meters (yards), allowing Armstrong to sprint to the end, and clock 4 hours, 21 minutes and 57 seconds.

“For me, Roberto is the stage winner,” Armstrong said. “He sacrificed everything for me and the team, and I’m very grateful.”

Heras finished the stage in third place, 13 seconds behind his teammate.

Gonzalez Galdeano, who was wearing the yellow jersey for the seventh consecutive day, flagged in the climb to La Mongie and placed 11th. He fell to third place in the overall standings, 1:48 behind Armstrong. Beloki, who like Gonzalez Galdeano rides for the Once team, was second overall.

“Beloki’s good,” Armstrong said. “He’s a threat, and we have to take all the time possible.”

However, the American appeared relaxed during Thursday’s race. He even had time to glance at a tour diagram he held in his right hand, to gage the difficulty of the climbs ahead.

“I thought it would be more aggressive, I thought there would be more attacks,” he said after his win.

It was the second time Armstrong has taken the yellow jersey this year. He won the Tour prologue in Luxembourg, but gave up the jersey in the Tour’s first full leg.

Before Thursday’s stage started, a minute’s silence was observed in memory of a 7-year-old boy who was hit and killed by a car from the Tour convoy on Wednesday.

Friday’s stage is a grueling 199.5-kilometer (123.69-mile) stretch from Lannemezan to the Plateau de Beille. It was to take riders up the Portet d’Aspet mountain pass, where Armstrong’s Italian teammate Fabio Casartelli crashed fatally in the 1995 Tour.