SAINT-MAXIENT-L'ECOLE, France -- Here on the Place Denfert, the happy heart of this stony old burg, Lance Armstrong is dressing in public again. French folks cheer as he thrusts his arms into the sleeves of the "Maillot Jaune,'' the yellow jersey.

Front to back, like a straight jacket rather than a blouse of honor, Armstrong slips it on. He allows a lovely young lady to zip up the back. He receives and dispatches air kisses to each cheek and accepts a stuffed teddy bear and a huge bunch of yellow flowers.

This is the ceremonial shirt, not the one actually worn during the race. That one has short sleeves and is pulled on over the head. The yellow jersey tradition has been going on for 84 years, since the first guy to put it on was whistled at and called a canary. But then as now, the point was the same, to easily pick out who is leading the race.

The traveling Tour de Lance has made another successful stop and clothing change. Armstrong smiles and waves at this new audience before clomping off the podium in his bicycle shoes, not made for walking.

This is ritual and routine, presenting the race leader to the public and Armstrong is familiar enough to do it in his sleep. This is his 11th yellow jersey this Tour. Will it be his last?

Race freaks and time keepers scurried to add things up, cross-check the math, figure the sprint bonuses, do the things that only bicycle race mavens do. Think earned run average or quarterback rating is hard, try keeping track of every second of a race now in its 1,935th mile.

Yep. There it is, more evidence that the Tour de Lance is coming to an end, the five consecutive victories is in jeopardy. On this day, yellow jersey or no, Lance Armstrong has lost two seconds to Jan Ullrich.

"Two seconds will not decide the Tour de France,'' said Armstrong in a quick interview in bad French.

I don't know how to explain how much atwitter this place is over the chance that Armstrong might lose, and might lose to a German, an East German from that school of athletic perfidy.

They have become l'Americain and the l'Allemand. Ullrich goes back to this kind of Cold War melodrama. When the Tour de France began in his hometown in 1987, Ullrich was mere yards from the start and couldn't see it because the Berlin Wall was still up and he was on the wrong side of it.

I am given a crash course in how Ullrich nearly pulled off a theft of more of those precious seconds on Friday. In an intermediate sprint over the 122 miles of the day, where bonus points can be won for getting from one here to there faster than anyone else, Ullrich raced off and came in second, picking up -- or knocking off -- four seconds of his time.

Had Armstrong not been alert to Ullrich's scheme, he could have lost two more seconds, but he dashed off as well and finished third for the sprint, getting back two of them.

Having now mastered this kind of arcane gibberish, I will be applying for my bicycle writer's press card soon, just as long as I don't have to answer what happened to those four seconds. How can you give back time after it has already passed? Maybe if you ride this thing long enough, you end up a child again.

No matter. The question to ask is this: does France want Lance to lose? I don't think so, not in the way France wanted Serena Williams to lose to Justine Henin-Hardenne in the French Open.

Armstrong has never insulted France, and has, in fact, honored this race such that it is almost the only one he runs, certainly the only one he cares about. It has made him rich and he has made it living room entertainment across the USA. A fair swap.

There is no real French challenger to Armstrong and, while Armstrong was earlier in his career, indifferent to the culture that showered his fame upon him, he has lately been as French as he can be, embracing the history of the event, doing interviews in the language.

But there is enough provincialism hereabouts to protect the French legends of Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, five-time winners. I asked a French journalist if there was animosity towards Spain's Miguel Indurain when he was going for five in a row.

"The same,'' said Jean-Yves Donor of Le Figaro. "We wish we would win but we wish most we shall not lose.''

Usually by this time Armstrong has already won the race and from here to Paris it is nothing more than a victory parade.

But with only two stages left, and ahead of Ullrich by 1:05, a 30-mile time trial -- just flat out racing against the clock -- might close the gap so that on Sunday, Armstrong will have to flee the protection of his Postal teammates and duel directly with Ullrich down the grandest avenue in Paris.

L'Americain versus L'Allemand on the Champs Elysees. No, not much history there at all.

Bernie Lincicome is a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News.