Stefan Schumacher, the leader of team Gerolsteiner, won the first time trial of the 2008 Tour de France on July 8 to take the lead in the overall standing.

The German rider, whose top career achievement previously was leading the Giro d'Italia for two days in 2006, surprised everyone with a strong performance on the 29.5km stage around Cholet.

“I don’t have a plan for what we’ll do now. I didn’t really expect to take the win and to do that and also get the yellow jersey is something that I hadn’t thought too much about. I’ll try to do the best tomorrow. With the team we have, there’s a good chance to defend the jersey at least for a few days and after that we’ll just have to wait and see," Schumacher said, as quoted by the Tour's official website letour.com.

Sprint standings leader Kim Kirchen of team Columbia and Briton David Millar, racing for Garmin Chipotle, finished second and third, 18 seconds down. The two riders are 12 seconds behind Schumacher in the overall standings.

Australian Cadel Evans, one of the favourites of the 2008 Tour de France, finished fourth on the day, while Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, widely tipped to win the time trial, was only fifth, although he had to race against stronger wind than the riders that finished ahead of him.

Romain Feillu, who took the yellow jersey on July 7 after a successful break-away, struggled in the time trial, looking clearly exhausted from the work he did the previous day, finishing nearly five minutes behind the stage winner.

A number of mountain specialists, including the winner of the first stage of the Tour, Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, have put in respectable times and are less than two minutes behind Schumacher.

The next stage on July 9 is the longest in the 2008 Tour de France, at 232km from Cholet to Chateauroux. It will feature three intermediate sprints, but no mountain climbs.