La Mongie, France ? The opening mountain stage in the Tour France went as expected, and now Lance Armstrong is where he expected.

In first place.

Armstrong, known for his dominance in the mountains, did not pull away from the pack as he has done in winning the last three Tours. Still, he defeated Spain’s Joseba Beloki by 7 seconds in Thursday’s leg from Pau to this ski station in the Pyrenees.

Armstrong clocked 4 hours, 21 minutes, 57 seconds in the stage and leads the Tour by 1:12 over Beloki.

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

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

The Texan also appeared to win the 97.96-mile stage without major effort, apart from the final sprint to the finish line.

That suggested he may be saving energy for today’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.

Armstrong said he was aggressive in the opening mountain stage the last three years, but did not use the same strategy Thursday.

“I didn’t attack,” Armstrong said. “It just felt very different.”

Although demanding, Thursday’s climb to La Mongie was not hard enough to prevent rivals, such as Beloki, from 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 on his top challenger, Jan Ullrich.

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 three miles before the finish.

“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, Gonzalez Galdeano’s teammate with Once, was second overall.