THOR HUSHOVD IS the new leader of the Tour de France after his Garmin-Cervelo squad won today’s Stage Two team time trial.

Hushovd is the current world champion, but he has now swapped his rainbow jersey for the yellow jersey. The big Norwegian leads the general classification by one second from Cadel Evans.

After yesterday’s uphill finish, there were 77 riders within six seconds of the lead of Philippe Gilbert. Having finished second on Stage One, Evans led Hushovd by three seconds overall. But his team finished second in today’s race against the clock, an agonising four seconds behind Hushovd’s Garmin-Cervelo.

It was an incredibly tight team time trial where the first five teams were separated by just five seconds at the finish. It is also Garmin-Cervelo’s first ever stage win in the Tour de France and Hushovd is also their first ever wearer of the yellow jersey, although the 33-year-old has worn it before himself in 2004 and 2006 while riding for Crédit Agricole.

In the overall G.C. battle, Alberto Contador’s team conceded 23 seconds to the Schlecks which, added to the time he lost after the crash yesterday, now leaves him 1’37″ behind both of them.

Nicolas Roche’s AG2R team finished in 13th place on the stage, conceding 53 seconds to the stage winners.

At 23km in length, this team time trial was unusually short for the Tour de France and as such, all the teams finished within a minute and a half of each other. The real overall battle won’t commence until the second week of the Tour.

Tomorrow’s stage should see the first bunch sprint of this year’s Tour where the man to beat will most certainly be Mark Cavendish who has won 15 stages in the past three years.