Switzerland's Alex Zülle has held onto sixth place in the Tour de France, after Sunday's second stage. After the 194-kilometre course from Futuroscope to Loudun, he is within 22 seconds of surprise leader, Scotsman David Millar.

Millar, a tour debutant, scooped the yellow jersey for his victory in Saturday's 16-kilometre prologue time trial at the Poitiers theme park. He also grabbed the green jersey on points and the white jersey for best young rider.

After the unexpected victory, Millar's Cofidis teammates decided to push to hold onto the yellow in Sunday's stage, and succeeded. Millar leads with an overall time of 5.05.09, closely followed by Lance Armstrong of US Postal, the 1999 Tour winner, with only a four-second gap.

Between Armstrong and Zülle lie Laurent Jalabert, Jan Ullrich, and David Canada, which means the Swiss rider needs to be in attacking mode in the next 161 kilometre stage from Loudun to Nantes, and would appreciate a better stage place than the fifty-sixth he reached on Sunday.

Overall standings, the other Swiss riders stand as follows: Laurent Dufaux (76/ 01.37), Roland Meier (89/ 01.44), Sven Montgomery (102/ 01.56), Armin Meier (127/ 02.14), and Markus Zberg (134/ 02.18).


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