Miller Second as Garmin Takes Le Tour Team Time Trial

Last updated : 04 July 2011 By Kev Monks

David Millar lies in second place after his Garmin Cervelo team won the team time trial at the Tour De France in Les Essarts this afternoon.

A small town some 12 miles from La Roche Sur Yon and 15 miles from yesterday's finish line at Mont des Alouttes, again getting there on public transport was a no-no (no buses on the sabbath) and the only people there including a shed load of determined Brits, were those who had arrived on Saturday and camped, or driven or biked in.

This was a 23km team time trial on flat roads and the 22 teams went in the following order - Saxo Bank-SunGard, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Vacansoleil-DCM, AG2R-La Mondiale, Saur-Sojasun, Rabobank, FDJ, Liquigas-Cannondale, Garmin-Cervélo, Europcar, Quick Step, Movistar, Astana,  Katusha, Team Sky, Lampre-ISD, Cofidis, RadioShack, HTC-Highroad,  Leopard Trek, BMC and yesterday's winner Philippe Gilbert's team Omega Pharma-Lotto.

Team Time Trialling is a discipline which requires not only team work to ensure that every rider in the nine man team crosses the finish line as fast as possible but awareness. Speaking about this, HTC Highroad's Mark Cavendish tweeted: "Love this event. It's about 9 guys getting the most out of the collective group, not each other. Real discipline and perfection needed."

Saxo Bank were off first and set a time of 25:16. Nicholas Roche's AG2R team came in at 25:41 before Rabbobank set the time to beat.

Garmin went off the start and lost three riders on the course but David Millar was in fine form and brought his team home in 24:48.

BMC and Team Sky who were trying to get Geraint Thomas into yellow, came in four seconds back but it was Thor Hushovd who was given the yellow jersey ahead of Millar, Cadel Evans and Geraint Thomas in fourth.

1 Garmin-Cervelo 0:24:48, 2 BMC 0:24:52, 3 Sky 0:24:52, 4 Leopard Trek 0:24:53, 5 HTC-Highroad 0:24:53