On an American company’s bicycle — Specialized — Stefan Schumacher of Gerolsteiner killed at the time trial Tuesday and took the yellow jersey at the Tour de France.

Schumacher finished the 29.5 mile TT in Cholet with a time of 34 minutes 44 seconds, 18 seconds ahead of American-team riders Kim Kirchen of Columbia and David Millar of Garmin-Chipotle. As a result, Schumacher jumped into first place and has a lead of 12 seconds over Kirchen and Millar, who had been 6 seconds ahead of Schumacher after Stage 3.

Silence-Lotto’s Cadel Evans, the big favourite entering the TdF, was 27 seconds behind Schumacher in the stage and is 21 seconds behind in the overall. World time trial champion Fabian Cancellara of CSC-Saxo Bank was 33 seconds behind Schumacher in the stage and is 27 behind in the overall.

Beyond the top five, there were a number of revelations in the TT …

– Garmin’-Chipotle’s Christian Vande Velde, and Columbia teammates Big George Hincapie and Thomas Lovkvist are “on form” as they say, finishing eighth, ninth and 11th, respectively, 37 seconds in arrears of Schumacher for Vande Velde, 41 seconds back for Hincapie and 47 for Lovkvist. They rank six, seven and eight behind (at those times) in the overall. Watch out for Lovkvist in the mountains. Lovkvist is now in the white jersey as the top young rider, and he could be Columbia’s insurance policy and go-to guy for the overall if Kirchen falters.

– Rabobank’s Denis Menchov recovered from a bad day Monday (got stuck behind a crash and lost 37 seconds to Evans) and finished sixth in the stage, just one second behind Cancellara and 34 seconds behind Schumacher. He did lose seven more seconds to Evans, tho, and is now 51 seconds behind Evans in the overall classification.

– Saunier Duval-Scott’s young Ricardo Ricco had an eye-popping Giro d’Italia, but after a decent showing in the first two days of the TdF, he has faltered in France. He got caught behind the same crash as Menchov on Monday but he didn’t bounce back on Tuesday. In fact, the TT (which cost him the Giro) hurt him again, and he finished 3:36 in arrears Tuesday and is in 59th overall, 4:08 behind Schumacher. Dude’s gonna have to have some big days in the mountains if he hopes to contend.

– Lampre’s Damiano Cunego, considered a contender going in, slipped 1:26 but he was even with Schumacher heading into the stage, so he’s in much better shape than Ricco.

– Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Epargne made a show of getting the yellow jersey in the first stage and holding it through the second stage to establish himself as a big contender, but he faltered badly in the TT, finishing 1:34 behind Schumacher. He’s now 17th, 1:27 behind Schumacher in the overall.

– American Danny Pate, in his first Tour de France, rode a good time trial and was the leader for a bit before his time ended up 14th, 1:10 behind Schumacher.

– With Valverde’s collapse in TT, I’d say the TdF is now Evans’ to lose. I don’t think anyone in the top 10 of the overall standings can stay with him in the mountains, plus he’ll have Yaroslav Popovich as his lieutenant in the mountains, a big plus for him. Columbia will have three strongmen for the mountains — Kirchen, Hincapie and Lovkvist. Vande Velde might be the dark horse, and although he isn’t known as a high mountain man, Garmin has a nice supporting cast.

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