Stage 2

Stage 2 and the Team Time Trial over and done with today in France. A good result for Garmin-Cervelo sees Thor Hushovd pick up his 3rd career yellow jersey who will hope to now carry it throughout the first week.

With 3 flat stages next on the agenda Hushovd will undoubtadely (barring any crashes or serious mechanicals) be in the yellow for a while. Even up until the race hits more mountaineous stages 8 and 9 both with tougher uphill finishes, I suspect Thor will remain in yellow. He is a tough rider who can roll through the hills unlike some of his other Sprinter counterparts.

Unfortunately for Alberto Contador his Saxo Bank Sungard team did nothing to help his time losses in today's stage. After his relatively large losses of 01' 20" in yesterdays events he lost a further 00' 22" to the lead today and is now sitting 01' 38" behind most of his main competition.

After Andy Schleck staying exactly with Contador in the mountains in last years race and only losing by the 00' 39" margin Contador put on Schleck when the Luxembourger dropped his chain - I would think the Spaniard will be getting nervous about this years race...especially considering the Giro already lingering in his legs.

Tomorrow holds a day for the sprinters, with no doubt HTC's Mark Cavendish looking for his first win of the Tour. The mainly flat 198km will take the riders from Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon further North.

League Rankings:

Some more movers and shakers today in the league rankings, many points were gained with the overnight calculation errors (see below) having been addressed. But also due to Garmin's win today and Thor Hushovd's move to the top of the GC many teams picked up points.

Team My Boys moved off the bottom spot and joined Team Fast and Random in a tie for 11th. Hanan/Thompson Cycling is now in the lantern rouge spot! An interesting intrafamily battle is happening already for 4th spot where the 3 Akeroyd siblings are within 4 points. No doubt things will shake up again tomorrow with the allocation of more sprint points and no doubt another breakaway...who will be picking up most of the intermediate sprint points.

Some initial calculation hurdles have been overcome in the fantasy league in the past 24 hours, much to be expected seeing this is the first edition. Firstly the points yesterday weren't accurately calculated for the breakaway riders, some missing out on their 15 point breakaway bonuses. Then today it was decided to award the riders in Garmin-Cervelo the 5 point "Team mate stage winner" bonus as the Tour does not award points for finishers in the TTT. Also there was some confusion as to the validity of the Polka dot Jersey classification yesterday and today.

Overnight no leaders had been posted or points awarded for riders in the top 10 of the mountains classification - however after consideration and an emergency officials meeting it was decided today, seeing as Gilbert is listed as leader of the Mountains Classification and Thor Hushovd today was de facto wearer of the polka dot jersey (as Gilbert was in yellow and Evans de facto wearer of the Green) points will be applied in retrospect for yesterdays Polka Dot leaders.

All updated points and rankings can be find to the right and left hand side of this post.