Thor Hushovd wins second stage and also takes the overall lead of 2011 Tour De France
Garmin-Cervelo team’s Thor Hushovd wins second stage and also took the overall leader’s yellow jersey in 2011 Tour de France in Les Essarts on Sunday, July 3.
Hushovd’s Garmin team took a total of 24 minutes and 48 seconds to cover the distance of 23 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Hushovd said, “Every rider gave 100 percent for the team. It’s incredible. When I look back to 10 years ago when I won the same TTT, it’s crazy. I’m proud to wear the rainbow jersey at the Tour de France but to pull on yellow is incredible for me.”
Garmin-Cervelo team kept the race under control and beat the BMC Racing team by four seconds down to Garmin. Sky Procycling team was in good form, but grabbed the third spot and Leopard-Trek finished in the fourth spot.
In the first intermediate check, Sky Team was in good form and gained a lead of 9 minutes and 2 seconds after nine kilometres, but it could not catch the team of Garmin-Cervelo.
RadioShack team also build a lead of 9 minutes and 11 seconds, but was 10 seconds down on Cervelo time. Andreas Kloden, Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner and Janez Brajkovic also showed his good performance.
Philippe Gilbert of Omega Pharma-Lotto took a lead in point’s classification with 45 points, while Cadel Evans was in second place with 35 points. Gilbert also won the mountain classification.
Geraint Thomas (Sky Procycling) grabbed the title of Best young rider ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen and Tejay Van Garderen.
Thor Hushovd took the overall lead with a timing of 5 hours, 6 minutes and 25 seconds. His team-mate, David Millar, was the runner-up with the same timing of Thor, while Cadel Evans of BMC racing team finished third with a difference of 1 second.
Thor said, "We don't have the biggest budget or the biggest staff, but we have the 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."
Recently, the 33-year-old, Hushovd took the eighth place in Paris-Roubaix stage and grabbed the first place in Tour de Suisse.
Alberto Contador Velasco of Saxo Bank Sungard was in the 75th place with a difference of 1 minute and 42 seconds.
The next stage will start in Olonne-sur-Mer and end in Redon. All the riders will cover the distance of 198 kilometres.
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