Seconds away

CHOLET, France - Cadel Evans knows what it feels like to lose the Tour de France by seconds. That's why, even though he did not win Tuesday's time trial, his dominance of Alejandro Valverde felt like a small victory in itself.

Evans finished the stage in fourth place, while Valverde was more than a minute slower than the Australian rider and crossed the line in 23rd place. German rider Stefan Schumacher won the stage to take the overall lead.

Evans, last year's Tour runner-up to Alberto Contador, knows just how valuable that lead is going to be heading into the tough Pyrenees and Alps mountains later in the July 5-27 Tour.

"When you've lost the Tour by 23 seconds, that's important," the 31-year-old Evans said. "Every second, every minute over Valverde is good to take."

Schumacher does not expect to keep the leader's yellow jersey for very long.

"I didn't come to win the Tour," Schumacher said. "My goal was to wear the jersey one day and to win a stage. I reached this goal, so everything else is a bonus."

The main contenders - Evans, Valverde, Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov - did not come to France for stage wins.

Schumacher won the 18.3-mile course around Cholet and was the only one under 36 minutes.

The Gerolsteiner rider clocked 35 minutes, 44 seconds and took the yellow jersey off Frenchman Romain Feillu, who was nearly 5 minutes slower and dropped to 41st overall the day after his win in Nantes.

Kim Kirchen of Luxembourg finished second in Tuesday's stage and Britain's David Millar was third, both 18 seconds behind Schumacher.

Behind those three, the scrap for Tour supremacy began in earnest as the contenders slipped into their skintight suits, pulled on their aerodynamic helmets, and chatted with mechanics as they checked their tires and brakes over and over - and just once more out of superstition.

"We don't want to be compromising any of our performance with bad equipment," said Millar, after posting his best result for five years since he beat seven-time champion Lance Armstrong to win a 2003 time trial.

"The fastest wheels, skinsuits, you know, everything we've got is on the money," Millar added.

Evans put 1 minute, 7 seconds on Valverde - having trailed the Spaniard by just one second overnight - and 1:16 on Sastre, another Spaniard, who crossed the line in 28th.

Sastre, who was fourth overall last year and third in 2006, limited the damage. It is a small blessing for the 33-year-old Sastre - a resilient and tough mountain climber - that he did not lose more than 1½ minutes. Evans has a 1:22 lead over Sastre.

"I think it's a very good result," Sastre said. "Only losing (1:16) to Evans, and only one minute (1:09) to Menchov, is very satisfying."

Menchov, formerly the Tour's best young rider, finished the stage 7 seconds behind Evans in sixth place. Overall, the Russian is 11th and trails Evans by 51 seconds.

The biggest loser of the day was time-trial world champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, who finished fifth.

"It wasn't my day today," said Cancellara, who had a post-stage doping test. "I couldn't find the rhythm and the sensations I normally have."

In the overall, Schumacher is 12 seconds clear of both Millar and Kirchen, and 21 seconds ahead of Evans.

Schumacher may wear the yellow jersey at least for another day as today's stage favors the sprinters, although Kirchen is again a threat over the 144.2-mile stage from Cholet to Chateauroux - the longest of the Tour.

Millar, meanwhile, was happy with his first top-three finish since beating Armstrong in 2003.

"I felt good, everything went perfect," Millar said.

Associated Press writer Naomi Koppel contributed to this report.