They may not have been in the winning team, but all five British riders in the Tour of the Mediterranean are now in the top twenty overall after the second, team time trial stage.
Caisse d'Epargne snatched top honours from Bradley Wiggins and David Millar's usually well-drilled Garmin-Slipstream team by just two seconds in the French stage race.
A further two seconds behind, the Barloworld squad containing Brits Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome and Steve Cummings came a solid third - Thomas and Cummings' track team pursuit experience has obviously rubbed off on the team.
Garmin-Slipstream have become the team to beat in team time trials, having won last year's opening Giro d'Italia TTT and having already won the TTT in the Tour of Qatar earlier this month.
Millar is now the top placed Brit in the Med, in 10th place. Ireland's Dan Martin is in ninth. Luis Sanchez of Caisse d'Epargne leads the race with four stages remaining. The final stage is on Sunday, February 15.
TOUR OF THE MEDITERRANEAN: STAGE TWO TTT RESULTS
1. Caisse d'Epargne 25km in 28-47
2. Garmin-Slipstream at 2secs
3. Barloworld at 4secs
4. Francaise des Jeux at 34secs
5. BBox-Bouygues Telecom at 40secs
OVERALL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE TWO
1. Luis Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne in 2-37-43
2. Daniel Moreno (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
3. Jose Gutierrez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
4. Imanol Erviti (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
5. Mathieu Perget (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne
6. Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
7. Anthony Charteau (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne at same time
8. Danny Pate (USA) Garmin-Slipstream at 3secs
9. Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Slipstream
10. David Millar (GBr) Garmin-Slipstream at same time
Other British
12. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin-Slipstream
14. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Barloworld at 5secs
16. Christopher Froome (GBr) Barloworld
18. Steven Cummings (GBr) Barloworld at same time
David Millar on stage one
Bradley Wiggins in the bunch on stage one
Garmin-Slipstream take second in the team time trial
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