Volta a Catalunya: Movistar powers to team time trial victory

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Alejandro Valverde and his Movistar team put in a winning display on stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya, taking the 43.1 kilometre team time trial from Pla de l'Estany to Banyoles in a time of 48:55.

The Spanish team finished two seconds clear of BMC Racing, with Chris Froome and Team Sky in third, 46 seconds down. The win was not without controversy with Valverde's teammate, Jose Rojas, first stripped of the leader's jersey after he was docked time for taking a push during the stage. Rojas had crossed the line at the front of the Movistar team and conducted both podium celebrations and television interviews before race judges intervened and docked the Spanish rider three minutes.

In an emergency meeting with the UCI commissaires, the jury then late in the evening imposed a one minute penalty on the entire Movistar squad after a protest by BMC, awarding the race lead to Ben Hermans.

The distance of the stage and the undulating parcours caused significant gaps in the overall standings. Alberto Contador and Trek-Segafredo limited their losses well to finish fourth at 1:15, but Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) lost more than two minutes, and with that any likely hopes of finishing on the podium.

Movistar were among the latter teams to start the stage, and it was Contador's Trek-Segafredo unit that set the early pace with a respectable time of 50:10. The Spaniard, still searching for his maiden win in Trek colours, marshalled his troops well enough and they looked on course for a podium spot until Team Sky and Movistar came through the finish.

There was little surprise when BMC overturned Trek's lead at both the intermediate and finish line time checks. The American squad may have been lacking some of their time trial depth, but with Rohan Dennis, Tejay van Garderen, and the reliability of Samuel Sanchez, Ben Hermans and Brent Bookwalter, they were always going to be the team to beat. They cut through technical sections with ease as Marco Pinotti – an expert at measuring efforts on such a course – orchestrated their ride. The red and black train looked impressive, even if they started to come apart briefly towards the end. They finished with their full contingent of eight riders, although several teams were still to finish.

Team Sky, looking to put a shambolic team time trial at Tirreno Adriatico behind them, welcomed Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Mikel Landa into the fold. This was the first time that all three had raced together since last year's Tour de France, with the team publicly backing the Welshman to lead their efforts here in Spain. That looked like a justified call when Landa was unceremoniously dropped during the second half of the race. Until that moment, Team Sky were one second ahead of Trek at the intermediate but 23 seconds down on the rampaging BMC.

The second half of the course was a battle of attrition, experience and, most importantly, will. Valverde, bouncing back from an illness that ruled him out of Paris-Nice, took a number of long turns on the front with Jonathan Castroviejo reminding everyone of his all-round class against the clock.

Coming into the final twists and turns it looked as though BMC would hold on take a narrow victory, but the Spanish WorldTour team would not be denied.

However, talk of unrest resulting from Movistar's ride began to surface soon after the finish. BMC Racing riders posted video footage of the Spanish team breaking UCI rules as Rojas was caught pushing Nelson Oliveira and Andrey Amador, on a climb midway through the race. Oliveira and Amador were also penalised one and two minutes, respectively, but Valverde escaped punishment despite UCI rules indicating that all riders on the team should have faced a one-minute penalty.

The overall picture

With such a long test against the clock coming so soon in the race, time gaps were always going to open up in the GC standings. Today's result has both opened up and closed off opportunities for several teams and riders.

The win puts Movistar in control, and they will be expected to set the pace on a difficult stage 3. The margin Valverde has over BMC's van Garderen and Dennis will be one of the most intriguing elements in the race. Dennis finished second in Tirreno, while van Garderen is struggling for form. Although the American is at this stage heading to the Giro as the captain of BMC, with Dennis as an understudy, another unflattering result could alter BMC's mind.

Both Thomas and Froome will rue the time conceded to Valverde, but having put time into Contador and a number of other GC contenders, they will see today's stage as mixed result.

*Update: Overnight the race jury chose to hand a one-minute penalty to the entire Movistar team, demoting them to third place on the day. The results have been amended accordingly.  

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