The 36-year-old won the 52km seventh stage by a full minute from Floyd Landis, with Sebastian Lang third.

Previous yellow jersey holder Tom Boonen trailed in 41st in the stage, almost four minutes behind Honchar's electrifying time.

The win leaves Honchar a minute clear of Landis in the general classification, with Australian Michael Rogers . . .

Honchar's T-Mobile teammate . . . a further eight seconds back in third.

Honchar, who became the first Ukrainian rider to claim the yellow jersey, said afterwards: "I am extremely happy, what else could you say? When asked about the secret of his success, he added: "I haven't a clue. . . time trials are my speciality, I did my best and I have done pretty well . . . I succeeded in the end.

"It was pretty important for the team because we have been through some difficult times. I am very happy to get the victory, and of course the yellow jersey."

The T-Mobile pair are joined in the top six by two more of their colleagues . . .

Patrik Sinkewitz in fourth and Andreas Kloden in sixth, behind white jersey holder Marcus Fothen.

T-Mobile technical director Mario Kummer added:

"Everybody did it the way we planned. Serhiy started fast and was able to maintain his rhythm.

"We are not surprised . . .

Serhiy has proved in the past that he is a specialist in time trials. He rode a good stage today, he is very strong."

Vladimir Karpets, Cadel Evans, Denis Menchov and David Zabriskie complete the top 10 in the standings.

Fothen finished seventh on Saturday, lifting the 24-yearold Gerolsteiner rider ahead of Benoit Vaugrenard of Francais des Jeux.

Boonen dropped down to 21st in the overall standings after struggling to live with the pace in one of his weaker disciplines. The Belgian Quickstep rider, though, will be hopeful of recovering ground and perhaps picking up an elusive first stage win in the sprinting stages over the coming days.

Rogers aside, the expected contenders for overall victory failed to impress in stage seven.

Zabriskie, one of the favourites to win the time trial, could only manage 13th place, almost two minutes behind Honchar, while Spaniard Oscar Freire finished 134th on the day, sending him crashing down to 74th in the overall classification.

George Hincapie, meanwhile, failed to even lead his Discovery Channel team home as he finished 24th, 2 minutes 42 seconds behind Honchar and 21 seconds behind team-mate Paolo Salvoldelli who finished in 19th position.

Zabriskie's fellow Team CSC member Bobby Julich, meanwhile, was forced to pull out of the Tour after crashing early in his ride and injuring his wrist to complete a miserable day for the team.