24 hours after taking their first ever Tour de France stage win, Orica-GreenEdge doubled their tally as the Australian team narrowly edged out world champions Omega Pharma-Quick Step in the stage 4 team time trial in Nice. The win puts yesterday's winner Simon Gerrans into yellow as the squad now occupies the top 3 position on GC.

Last year Orica-GreenEdge was hugely disappointed not to reach their stage win objective at the Tour de France and had put everything into this year's race in an attempt to make up for last year's failure. After 4 days, the team has already achieved more than they might ever have expected as the squad won today's team time trial and put Simon Gerrans into yellow - just 24 hours after the team's first ever win at the world's biggest race.

Led by time trial specialists Svein Tuft, Cameron Meyer, Daryl Impey and Brett Lancaster, the team powered along on the 25km completely flat route along the Nice seafront in what was the fastest ever team time trial in a grand tour. As Gerrans, Impey and Michael Albasini were all on the same time, a count back put Gerrans into the coveted leader's jersey.

The team had started out slowly and was only 3rd at the intermediate check, 3 seconds behind world champions Omega Pharma-Quick Step, who led almost the entire day. However, the Australians really put down the hammer on the way back to the start-finish area and as 6 of the team's riders crossed the line together, they had been 1 second faster than the Belgian super team.

The world champions had been the second team down the ramp due to its low placing in the team's classification but showed its intentions immediately by riding what was at the time the fastest ever grand tour team time trial. World time trial champion Tony Martin proved that he is back to strength after his day one crash and took enormous turns to ride his team into the provisional lead for most of the day.

Among the GC riders, it was Chris Froome who had the most reason to be satisfied. His Sky team finished 3rd, only 3 seconds down on Orica-GreenEdge, and so Froome took time on all his main rivals.

However, he did not put much into Alberto Contador as the Saxo-Tinkoff team rode strongly to finish 4th only 6 seconds further adrift. Lotto-Belisol had a surprisingly strong ride to finish 5th, thus putting Jurgen Van Den Broeck in a really good positions early in the race.

Garmin-Sharp won the most recent Tour team time trial and was one of the big favourites for today. However, the American had a disappointing ride and only managed to finish 6th. BMC - who had finished 2nd behind Garmin 2 years ago - are also likely to be dissatisfied with their modest 9th place.

Movistar has proved on numerous occasions that the squad is one of the best in the discipline and a 17th place at 19 seconds certainly put Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana and Rui Costa into a good position. Joaquin Rodriguez and his Katusha team will also not be unhappy with a 10th place that saw them lose 28 seconds to Orica-GreenEdge.

Yellow jersey Jan Bakelants had been tipped to lose his tunic and that prediction turned into reality. His Radioshack team had used plenty of energy in yesterday's stage and probably paid the price today, finishing a modest 11th at 29 seconds.

Gerrans will head into tomorrow's long 228,5km stage to Marseille with the leader's jersey on his shoulders. The stage is likely to finish in a sprint but some small hills and the Mistral wind have the potential to change the predicted script.

Starting at 14.00, you can follow all the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Argos-Shimano first team down the ramp

The 25km flat team time trial was expected to be the first big showdown between the race favourites and Argos-Shimano had the honour of kicking off the show. Early on, it was, however, clear that the Dutchmen would not be in the run for any top placing today and finished last.

The second team down the ramp was Omega Pharma-Quick Step who crushed the time set by Argos, putting 1.46 into the Dutch sprint team. Moments later Lotto-Belisol finished in a surprisingly strong time, the Belgian team only losing 16 seconds to the defending world champions.

Garmin-Sharp misses put on repeat win

Cannondale, Cofidis, FDJ and Belkin were all far off the mark and the first team to challenge Omega Pharma-Quick Step was Garmin-Sharp, the American team being only 4 seconds off the mark at the intermediate check. They were, however, unable to keep up the speed on their way home and had lost 16 seconds when they crossed the line.

As expected, Euskaltel had no chance in the discipline but Team Sky was up to the challenge. Having lost 5 seconds at the intermediate check, the team rode strongly on the final stretch, narrowing the gap to only 3 seconds and thus putting Froome into the provisional lead among the GC favourites.

Movistar with solid performance

Katusha, Sojasun and Astana were never expected to challenge for the win but Movistar had high ambitions. Already at the midpoint, they had, however, lost 8 seconds, adding another 10 seconds to their loss on the home run.

Saxo-Tinkoff proved that they were in the race to win it as the Danish team passed the intermediate check in a time that was only 1 second slower than the Belgian leaders. Like many others, they lost time in the final part and finished 8 seconds behind Omega Pharma-Quick Step.

Australians on a roll

French teams Europcar and Ag2r were both far off the mark but Orica-GreenEdge showed their intentions at the intermediate check by only losing 3 seconds on the opening stretch. In an impressive display of power, the team managed to up the pace even further into the headwind on the home run and took over the provisional lead.

Lampre-Merida and Vacansoleil were no match to the Australians but much was expected from the BMC team. Already at the intermediate check, it was, however, clear that it would not be a day of glory for the Americans and they crossed the finish line in the 9th fastest time.

As the final team on the course, Radioshack did what they could to defend Bakelants' jersey but kept losing time throughout the entire stage. Their time of 26.25 was only good enough for 11th and Bakelants will be back in his usual jersey tomorrow, handing over the yellow tunic to Gerrans.

Result:

1 Orica GreenEdge  25.56
2 Omega Pharma-QuickStep  0.01
3 Sky Procycling  0.03
4 Team Saxo-Tinkoff  0.09
5 Lotto-Belisol  0.17
6 Garmin-Sharp 
7 Movistar Team  0.19
8 Lampre-Merida  0.25
9 BMC Racing Team 
10 Katusha Team  0.28
11 Radioshack-Leopard 0.29
12 Vacansoleil-DCM  0.33
13 Cannondale  0.34
14 Belkin Pro Cycling  0.37
15 FDJ.fr  0.42
16 Astana Pro Team 0.56
17 AG2r La Mondiale 1.04
18 Sojasun  1.10
19 Team Europcar 1.13
20 Cofidis Solutions Credits 1.20
21 Euskaltel - Euskadi 1.24
22 Team Argos-Shimano 1.47

General classification:

1 Simon Gerrans - Orica GreenEdge 12.47.24

2 Impey - Orica GreenEdge
3 Micahel Albasini - Orica GreenEdge
4 Michal Kwiatkowski - Omega Pharma-QuickStep 0.01
5 Sylvain Chavanel - Omega Pharma-QuickStep
6 Edvald Boasson Hagen - Sky Procycling 0.03
7 Christopher Froome - Sky Procycling
8 Richie Porte - Sky Procycling
9 Nicolas Roche - Team Saxo-Tinkoff 0.09
10 Roman Kreuziger - Team Saxo-Tinkoff
11 Michael Rogers - Team Saxo-Tinkoff
12 Alberto Contador - Team Saxo-Tinkoff
13 David Millar - Garmin-Sharp 0.17
14 Jurgen van den Broeck - Lotto-Belisol
15 Adam Hansen - Lotto-Belisol

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 74

2. Marcel Kittel 57

3. Alexander Kristoff 48

4. Michal Kwiatkowski 41

5. Lars Boom 40

Mountains classification:

1. Pierre Rolland 10

2. Simon Clarke 5

3. Blel Kadri 5

4. Mikel Nieve 3

5. Cyril Gautier 2

Youth classification:

1. Michal Kwiatkowski 12.47.25

2. Andrew Talansky +0.16

3. Nairo Quintana +0.19

4. Tejay Van Garderen +0.25

5. Peter Sagan +0.33

Teams classification:

1. Orica GreenEdge  37.30.20
2. Sky Procycling  0.03
3. Team Saxo-Tinkoff  0.09
4. Garmin-Sharp +0.17

5. Movistar +0.20