France (July 9, 2008) – Team Garmin/Chipotle has extended their lead in the team competition of the Tour de France after strong performances in Tuesday’s individual time trial.

David Millar placed 3rd, just 18 seconds off the pace and has moved himself into third overall. “I’ve never been on a Tour de France team good enough to get yellow numbers” said the British TT champ on the team blog yesterday. “It’s been a great start to the race, but it is only the start, and we’ve got plenty to go through before we get to Paris.”

Also adding to the strong team performance were Christian Vande Velde, whose 8th place finish moved him up to 6th in the general classification and Danny Pate whose 36′54″ finishing time was the time to beat for more than an hour. The former U23 World TT Champion was good enough to finish 14th in the stage.

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O stage 4 ITT results:

1. Stefan Schumacher 35′44″
2. Kim Kirchen +18″
3. David Millar +18″
8. Christian Vande Velde +37″
14. Danny Pate +1′10″
36. Magnus Backstedt +1′54″
56. Ryder Hesjedal +2′34″
111. Trent Lowe +3′34″
112. Julian Dean +3′34″
138. Martijn Maaskant +3′54″
141. Will Frischkorn +4′01″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC:

1. Stefan Schumacher 14h04′41″
2. Kim Kirchen +12″
3. David Millar +12″
6. Christian Vande Velde +37″
57. William Frischkorn +3′51″
66. Julian Dean +4′19″
74. Martijn Maaskant +4′48″
84. Danny Pate +5′23″
86. Ryder Hesjedal +5′26″
109. Trent Lowe +6′26″
144. Magnus Backstedt +8′53″

Team CG:

1. Garmin-Chipotle 42h13′59″
2. Team Columbia +1′44″
3. Team CSC +2′35″