Dauphiné: BMC wins team time trial

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Rohan Dennis moved into the lead of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Tuesday after BMC triumphed in the team time trial on stage three.

The current world champions, whose squad featured four of the five riders who helped them to that title in Ponferrada in September, clocked a time of 29:58 over the 24.5km course from Roanne to Montagny.

Team Sky finished 34 seconds down as Peter Kennaugh relinquished ownership of the leader’s yellow jersey.

Prior to the stage Manuel Quinziato was BMC’s best-placed man on GC but was not among the five riders who reached the finish together, meaning Dennis is the new race leader.

Though the jersey is on Dennis’ shoulders, the general classification man is still Tejay van Garderen - twice fifth at the Tour de France - who now sits in a commanding second place.

"It went great," said the American as he waited to mount the podium. “We finished with five guys, so we were on the limit at the end, but that shows we gave it everything.

"I feel good. This was the first big test of the Dauphiné, and going into the mountains I feel ready to put up a good challenge. It’s a good warning shot going into July."

Despite some early formation problems, Astana finished just four seconds down on BMC to finish in second place, allowing Vincenzo Nibali move up to fourth on GC.

The biggest losers on the day were Team Sky, with Chris Froome shaking his head as he crossed the line having lost 30 seconds to his main rival Nibali.

Cannondale-Garmin’s hopes of defending Andrew Talansky’s overall title took a minor blow too, as they were 43 seconds slower than BMC. Another GC man to lose time was Joaquim Rodriguez, whose Katusha squad were way off the pace at 1:05 back on BMC.

Movistar, Etixx-QuickStep, and Orica-GreenEdge were third, fourth and fifth respectively on the day, reflecting the time trialling pedigree in their teams. Former UCI Hour Record holder Alex Dowsett powered Movistar to a time of 30:03 that launched Alejandro Valverde into the top ten, while Etixx will have been disappointed to finish 13 seconds slower than that. Orica, despite lacking a number of the figures that powered them to team time trial victory at the Giro d’Italia last month, put in a respectable display to finish 23 seconds back on BMC.

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How it happened

This was the first team time trial in the Dauphiné for 35 years, making its return in no small part because of the similar test coming up in the Tour de France in July.

On paper at least, today’s route was a more straightforward affair than the rugged 28km challenge that awaits in Brittany on stage 9 of the Tour, with its stinging climb to the finish. There were no significant ascents, though there was a steady gain in elevation on the back end of a course replete with false flats.

FDJ were first off the start ramp but not much could be gleaned from their performance given that Thibaut Pinot and the core of their have skipped the Dauphiné this year to ride the Tour de Suisse instead. The French squad posted a time of 31:31, which was never going to last long.

BMC were third off and would provide an early reference point as reigning world champions. Four of the riders who helped them to that title in Ponferrada last September - Tejay van Garderen, Rohan Dennis, Manuel Quinziato and Daniel Oss – were riding today as they duly stormed through the 14km intermediate checkpoint in 15:56. They reached the finish to clock 29:58, 1:18 quicker than Giant-Alpecin at the time.

While BMC powered to victory, Astana, with last year’s Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali, set out and encountered some early problems. The team’s formation was disjointed and Alessandro Vanotti and Dmitriy Gruzdev began to flag, the latter being dropped five kilometres in. They steadied the ship, though, and were only four seconds down on BMC at the intermediate check, a deficit that stayed the same until the finish.

Etixx-QuickStep also had some troubles early on, with Niki Terpstra and Martin Velits blown out the back and David De La Cruz flagging. Tony Martin’s team were 11 seconds down on BMC at the checkpoint and that extended to 18 seconds by the finish.

Movistar started slowly but made up time over the second half of the course, while LottoNL-Jumbo produced a steady ride to claim a top ten spot.

As the majority of teams were out on the course, some general classification outsiders began to lose time. Bauke Mollema, top ten in the previous two Tours de France, had a bad day with Trek, who were 1:14 down by the end, while Rodriguez’s Katusha didn’t fare much better.

Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale), sixth in last year’s Tour, and Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), three-time Tour de Suisse winner, both lost close to a minute.

Cannondale-Garmin and Sky were the last two teams on the road, and both ran into trouble. The American squad held it together over the first portion of the course but Talansky was forced to spend a considerable amount of time on the front, his high pace disjointing the formation behind.

Sky’s troubles began earlier as Wout Poels and Ian Stannard were dropped just before the intermediate checkpoint and Luke Rowe joined them just afterwards. Riding with the bare five for a large chunk of the course, Nicolas Roche struggled at the end as Froome drove things at the front and shook his head as they crossed the line.

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