Hushovd takes yellow jersey

David Millar's Garmin-Cervelo squad won the Tour de France team time-trial in Les Essarts to propel Thor Hushovd into the race leader's yellow jersey.

The nine-man Garmin-Cervelo team clocked 24 minutes 48 seconds as Millar's men denied Team Sky a first Tour stage win and the opportunity to take the yellow jersey.

The British team were equal second in 24mins 52secs, with BMC Racing finishing on the same time.

Andy Schleck's Leopard Trek team and Mark Cavendish's HTC-Highroad squad were five seconds behind Garmin-Cervelo, who took their first Tour stage win, with Alberto Contador's Saxo Bank-SunGard squad eighth, 28 seconds behind.

Millar is now second overall on the same time as Hushovd, with Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) one second behind in third and Geraint Thomas fourth overall, four seconds adrift.

World champion Hushovd leads podium hopefuls Schleck (Leopard Trek) and Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) by four seconds in the general classification, with three-time winner Contador 1:42 adrift after enduring a difficult day.

Millar savoured Garmin-Cervelo's first Tour stage win, believing the success was extra special as it was shared.

The Scot said: "It's the stuff you dream of, so to achieve it is a wonderful feeling. It's a team experience. To sit there all of us and experience the same tensions as each other was a unique feeling.

"The energy was crazy and the emotions are so much stronger than winning an individual time-trial.

"I've won a fair few of those but this on a whole different level. It's so much better to share the emotions run so high."