[Tex/LaTex] Align environment with blank left side in the first line

Question

Is it possible to use the align environment (or something similar) to typeset something like the following (nonesense) example with correct spacing?

  |a - c|
< |a - b| + |b - c|

What I want: The first line should be aligned to everything in the second (and consecutive lines) right from the <. I tried things like

\begin{align*}
    &  |a - c|\\
    & < |a - b| + |b - c| 
\end{align*}

or

\begin{align*}
    &  |a - c|\\
    < & |a - b| + |b - c| 
\end{align*}

but in the first example, the first line isn't aligned, and in the second example, the < is too close to the first | in the second line.

Using something like \phantom{<} in the first line, i.e.

\begin{align*}
    & \phantom{<} |a - c|\\
    & < |a - b| + |b - c| 
\end{align*}

didn't align the first line correctly, either. I'm probably overlooking a really obvious solution here, but I can't think of one myself and don't really know what to search for.

EDIT:

MWE:

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}
\begin{align*}
  & |a-c| \\
  & < |a-b| + |b-c|
\end{align*}

\begin{align*}
  & |a-c| \\
  < & |a-b| + |b-c|
\end{align*}

\begin{align*}
    & \phantom{<} |a - c|\\
    & < |a - b| + |b - c| 
\end{align*}

What I want: 

\begin{align*}
    & \phantom{ {}<{}} |a - c|\\
    & < |a - b| + |b - c| 
\end{align*}
\end{document}

The indicated align* is what I want (i.e. the last one), which is cmhughes' solution. Is there a way to do this without the \phantom (meaning a more flexible solution), or do you have to do it like this?

Answer 1

if the space you want after the < is the same as you'd get if everything were on one line, then simply putting {} between the < and the & is sufficient:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}

\begin{align*}
      &  |a - c| \\
  <{} &  |a - b| + |b - c| 
\end{align*}

\[ |a - c| <  |a - b| + |b - c| \]

\end{document}