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July 3, 2013

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Gerrans gets yellow jersey as team wins time trial

AUSTRALIAN Simon Gerrans took the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey when his Orica-GreenEdge outfit won yesterday's team time trial, 24 hours after he had won the third stage.

The Australian team crossed the line in 25 minutes 56 seconds, making it the fastest stage in the Tour's history.

It finished one second ahead of Belgian world champion Omega Pharma Quick-Step with Britain's Team Sky a further two seconds behind in third in the 25-kilometer dash along the streets of the southern seaport of Nice.

"It has been a dream start for us," Orica-GreenEdge sporting director Matt White said. "We knew we would be competitive but to win (the time trial), we are very surprised."

Gerrans beat pre-stage favorite Peter Sagan of Slovakia to win Monday's individual honors and now leads the overall standings ahead of teammates Daryl Impey of South Africa and Michael Albasini of Switzerland.

The team was in the limelight for the wrong reasons on Saturday's opening stage when its bus got stuck under the overhead banner at the finish line as the speeding peloton was approaching.

Omega Pharma Quick-Step was hampered by problems with German individual time-trial world champion Tony Martin, who suffered concussion and an elbow wound in a crash in the opening stage, and Briton Mark Cavendish, who has had bronchitis.

Team Sky had its own woes with team pursuit Olympic champion Geraint Thomas of Wales riding despite a pelvis fracture, though he kept up with his teammates until the finishing stretch.







 

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