Lance Armstrong began day one of his farewell Tour in familiar style on Saturday by crushing longtime rival Jan Ullrich and other leading challengers.

He leads Alexandre Vinokourov by 51 seconds, Ullrich by 66, and Ivan Basso by 84 after the fastest time trial in Tour history.

``I was hungry today,'' Armstrong said. ``I didn't come here to ride a retirement race. I'm here to win and to show the world I'm committed to this race.''

The message was received loud and clear by almost everyone.

David Zabriskie, an American rider, beat Armstrong by two seconds in his Tour debut.

Zabriskie covered the 19-km course from Fromentine to Noirmoutier-en-l'Ile in 20 minutes, 51 seconds, riding at 54.67 km/h. That beat the time trial record set in 1989 by Greg Lemond.

``I never thought this would happen,'' Zabriskie said.

Neither did Ullrich, who started a minute ahead of Armstrong, and was overtaken by the six-time defending champion.

``The feeling of being passed by Lance is not good,'' the German said.

Ullrich won the Tour in 1997 while Armstrong was beating cancer, and finished runner-up five times - three to Armstrong. Ullrich entered the Tour looking leaner and fitter than for years but he failed to see imminent danger when he crashed into the back of his team car on Friday.

Ullrich does not usually scout out time trial routes, but decided to this time.

``He's arguably lucky to be in the race today,'' said Armstrong.

Johan Bruyneel, Armstrong's team director, said: ``I'm sure Jan did not wake up this morning with good sensations. When you go through a window at high speed it must have an effect.''

Armstrong was honest enough to admit overtaking Ullrich was a thrill.

``You can't lie. That's a good feeling,'' Armstrong said. ``A lot has been said about Jan but there's no hatred, there's no hard feelings.''

Ullrich has little time to recover ahead of tomorrow's team time trial, where further time loss could prove decisive. Ultimately, his T-Mobile team might turn to Vinokourov as its number one hope to topple Armstrong.

After all the fuss concerning his last Tour, Armstrong was just glad to be back racing.

``The first few days ... you feel like you get up at eight and go to bed at midnight,'' he said. ``The whole time you are doing stuff, team presentations, press conferences, friends stopping by. It's just exhausting, all the riders are just happy when they roll down the ramp.''

ASSOCIATED PRESS