Stage 2 - From Rainbows To Gold

Norway’s God of Thunder, Thor Husvhod, exchanged the rainbow bands of World Champion for the Yellow Jersey, after his Garmin Cervelo team took out last night’s 23km Team Time Trial around Les Essarts. The jersey tantalisingly slipped from the fingers of Australia’s Cadel Evans, who missed the golden fleece by just 47 hundreds of a second, after his BMC team put up a brave performance to finish second on the stage, 4 seconds behind their American rivals. Philippe Gilbert’s Omega Pharma Lotto squad also battled, and the Belgian had to forfeit the Yellow Jersey after his team finished 39 seconds back on the stage.

As had been expected on such a short TTT stage, the time gaps across the entire field were relatively small, with less than 90 seconds separating Garmin in first and the Basque boys of Euskatel in last. Again the major losers on the GC scene where the Spanish pair of Alberto Contador and Sammy Sanchez. Contador’s Saxo team finished in 8th, 28 seconds behind Garmin, and 24 seconds behind Andy Schleck’s Leopoard Trek outfit, to put the defending champ 1:40 behind the other pre-race favourites. Sanchez’s podium ambitions are in early difficulty, and he sits outside the top 100 over 2:30 back.

The honours on the day all go to Garmin though, who finally cracked the big TTT win they so long craved. And to be honest, outside of that, there was not too much to say about the stage. Given the relative lack of time gaps covering the field it would be nit-picking to say any of the teams truly shone or underperformed. Liquigas were probably the major disappointment, finishing almost a minute behind Garmin. They are normally a powerhouse in this speciality in the Giro, and Ivan Basso will not be happy coughing up that kind of time to the likes of Evans and the Schlecks.

HTC may be disappointed to only finish 5th but they were hampered by an early crash to Bernard Eisel. Sky and BMC were the two big outperformers, both teams dragged along by their GC men in Bradley Wiggins and Evans respectively.

Tonight see’s the first true flat stage of this year’s Tour so we should get a much better guide on the contenders for the Green Jersey come the end of the day.

Yellow Jersey – Thor Husvhod
Green Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
Polka Dot Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
White Jersey – Geraint Thomas