The American team has emerged as the dominant force in the team time trial in recent years, winning the world title in 2014 and 2015 and the team time trial stage at the 2015 Tour de France. After detailed preparation by time trial coach Marco Pinotti, the BMC riders put in a near perfect ride, with Daniel Oss, Tejay van Garderen, Taylor Phinney, Greg Van Avermaet, and Manuel Quinziato all finishing together. Damiano Caruso, Alessandro De Marchi and Jean Pierre Drucker finished a little off the pace after sitting up following their contribution to the effort earlier in the 22km.
Oss crossed the line first and so pulled on the race leader's blue jersey. It was a moment of payback for the Italian's hard work as a core domestique in the team. Van Garderen finished in the same time, and so BMC's victory allowed him to gain some significant time on his overall rivals.
Thibaut Pinot surprisingly lost the least amount of time – nine seconds, after his FDJ team finished third behind BMC and Etixx-QuickStep. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) lost 15 seconds to van Garderen, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) lost 17 seconds, Michal Kwiatkowski and Wout Poels (Team Sky) lost 21 seconds, Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) lost 25 seconds and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) lost 29 seconds. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) lost an even more significant 59 seconds, while Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) lost 2:03 and any chance of overall success after he and three teammates touched wheels and crashed at speed on a straight section of road.
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
