Hushovd in overall Tour lead

LES ESSARTS, France — Thor Hushovd of Norway captured the overall lead at the Tour de France on Sunday after his Garmin-Cervelo team won the time trial in the second stage of the race.

Hushovd took the yellow jersey from Philippe Gilbert of Belgium, the winner of Saturday’s opening stage.

The Garmin-Cervelo team finished in 24 minutes, 48 seconds around the 14.3-mile flat stage around Les Essarts in the Vendee region of western France.

It was Garmin-Cervelo’s first stage win on the Tour after the American-registered outfit finished second in the 2009 team time trial.

Hushovd has the coveted yellow shirt for the third time of his career ahead of his teammate David Millar, with whom he shares the same time in the overall standings.

Cadel Evans of Australia stands third, just a second behind.

Defending champion Alberto Contador lost more time to the other main contenders after his Saxo-Bank team posted a time of 25:16.

Contador already lost more than a minute to his rivals during the first stage after being slowed down by a crash and stands 75th, 1:42 behind Hushovd.

“This is an extraordinary dream, I’m very proud, I’m very happy to take the jersey and that the team won the stage,” Hushovd said.

“This is a great day, we did a really good team effort, everything worked perfectly.”

Garmin riders celebrated their win by lifting their manager Jonathan Vaughters on their shoulders at the podium ceremony.

According to provisional results, Evans’ BMC team finished second with British team Sky getting third.