Hushovd gets Tour lead as team win second stage

LES ESSARTS, France, (Reuters) – Thor Hushovd swapped  his world champion’s jersey for the Tour de France yellow thanks  to his Garmin-Cervelo team mates who won the 23-km second stage  of the race, a time trial, yesterday.

The American team covered the windswept course in 24 minutes  48 seconds, at an average speed of 55.6 kph, beating another  American outfit, BMC, by four seconds, while British Team Sky  were third in the same time.
“The world champion jersey and the yellow jersey are the  best two jerseys in cycling and to wear them the same year is  just incredible,” Hushovd said. “Thanks to the team for the win,  thanks to the team for the jersey.”

The Norwegian took the Tour reins thanks to his third place  in Saturday’s first stage, pushing out team mate David Millar,  who now lies second overall in the same time.
The Scot, who did more than his share of the job to lead the  Garmin team to their first Tour de France victory, had no hard  feelings.