Norway's Thor Hushovd pulled on the yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Sunday, marking the first time the US-based Garmin-Cervelo cycling team has ever led the race.
And they did it as a team, much like they did in 2008 (racing as Garmin-Chipotle) when Christian Vande Velde took the overall leader's pink jersey at the Giro d'Italia.
The squad managed by Jonathan Vaughters secured the yellow jersey by winning the Stage 2 team time trial. They beat another US-based team, BMC Racing, by 4 seconds in the 23km flat stage around Les Essarts.
Based on their strong finishes in Saturday's opening stage, Hushovd and David Millar are sitting 1st and 2nd in the overall category. BMC's Cadel Evans dropped from 2nd to 3rd place overall.
The overall leader after Stage 1, Phillippe Gilbert, fell down the standings as his Omega-Lotto team finished in 10th place, about 40 seconds behind.
“We did a really great team effort today and everything just worked perfect,” Hushovd said following the race.
Although Hushovd has worn the green points jersey at the Tour de France numerous times, this is his first time in yellow. He joined Garmin-Cervelo this season after two years on the Cervelo TestTeam. He's also the World Road Race Champion.
Vaughters was quoted on Versus.com:
most passion. Today it came together. We put out a plan that got us to
the line the fastest. The amount of sacrifice the guys had to do to
get it done is amazing. I'm very proud of our guys.”
Meanwhile, defending champion Alberto Contador lost more time — 28 seconds — after his Saxobank team placed 8th. He's currently in 75th place, 1:42 behind the yellow jersey.
Top 10 overall:
1. Thor Hushovd, Garmin Cervelo
2. David Millar, Garmin Cervelo
3. Cadel Evans, BMC – 1 second behind
4. Geraint Thomas, Sky – 4 seconds
5. Linus Gerdemann, Leopard –
6. Frank Schleck, Leopard – 4 seconds
7. Fabian Cancellara, Leopard – 4 seconds
8. Edvald Hagen, Sky – 4 seconds
9. Manuel Quinziato, BMC – 4 seconds
10. Andy Schleck, Leopard – 4 seconds
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