NICE, France — Orica Greenedge won the team time trial Tuesday on the fourth stage of the Tour de France to put veteran Australian rider Simon Gerrans in the race leader's yellow jersey. Considered an outsider to win the 25-kilometer (15.5-mile) dash along the streets of the southern seaport of Nice, Orica just beat early pacesetter Omega Pharma-Quickstep with the top four teams finishing within 10 seconds of each other. Orica finished in a provisional time of 26 minutes, 25 seconds. The 33-year-old Gerrans, who won Monday's third stage in a sprint finish, takes over the overall lead from Belgian rider Jan Bakelants. The Orica riders formed a circle and then hugged and slapped each other on the back when they were sure of the win. Tour favorite Chris Froome's Sky team finished third ahead of rival Alberto Contador's Saxo-Tinkoff. Bakelants lost the leader's jersey because his RadioShack team finished way behind. He narrowly avoided a crash as he went perilously close to hitting some railings. Froome is three seconds behind Gerrans, who is not considered a Tour challenger, and two-time Tour champion Contador is six seconds behind Froome. The peloton returned to mainland France after three stages in the searing heat and sinewy climbs of Corsica. Under sunny blue skies, the teams set off at four-minute intervals and the overall team standings were reversed, meaning the first team to go was Argos-Shimano and the last team down the ramp was RadioShack. The Argos-Shimano team, including Marcel Kittel — the German who won the Tour's hectic first stage Saturday — set off first. But Omega did the early damage, setting a ferociously quick time despite the fact their best rider — Tony Martin — was carrying the raw scars of his fall on stage 1. Garmin-Sharp, convincing winners of the team time trial when it was last held two years ago, were again among the favorites and set off with high hopes of placing veteran David Millar in the yellow jersey. But they finished in sixth place, and Millar blamed himself. “I wasn't in good form today but the team was very, very strong,” the 36-year-old Millar said. “I think it was me who was missing the (16) seconds.” There were some banged up riders taking part, too, with Martin and Geraint Thomas saddling up despite nursing some nasty injuries after crashing on stage one. Martin became unconscious in the team bus after his fall and was taken to hospital for injuries including bruising of the lung, while Thomas rode with a fractured pelvis. “He is definitely better today than yesterday,” Omega's team doctor Helge Riepenhof said of Martin. “Yesterday and the day before were the worst for him. There are bruises everywhere and he lost so much skin that it hurts when he moves.” Sky was 5.63 seconds behind Omega at the halfway point as Froome drove relentlessly from the front, but they left themselves too much to do and the exhausted Thomas dropped out close to the end. — AP
