Orica power Gerrans to top as Roche misses out on yellow jersey

Three days after they were the laughing stock of the Tour de France, when their team bus became wedged under the finishing line gantry, Orica GreenEdge capped a marvellous turnaround when they won their second stage in as many days and claimed the race leader’s yellow jersey yesterday.

The Australian team were fastest in the 25-kilometre team time-trial around Nice and that was enough to put former Team Sky rider Simon Gerrans into the overall lead.

Their time of 25 minutes 56 seconds was just one second faster than Mark Cavendish’s Omega Pharma-Quick Step squad and three seconds better than Team Sky, who will both wonder if they might have won were it not for some key injuries resulting from that opening day carnage.