Route du Sud: Quintana wins time trial

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) showed again that his Tour de France preparation is on track, demonstrating his improved time trialing abilities by beating multi-time French national champion Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie) by six seconds on the technical circuit. Imanol Erviti was third.

With the win, Quintana moved into the overall race lead over Chavanel by 11 seconds, with Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie), the winner of the first two stages, in third at the same time.

Quintana's performance was a surprise, considering he spent 150km in the breakaway on the previous day's stage.

"I was a bit tired, but my legs really went well today," Quintana said. "I was confident about my chances and it helped me really much to have this new Canyon Speedmax with me today. It works really well, it's going to be perfect for me, a huge bonus. I hadn't really worked that much for TTs, just what I thought I needed to reach the two time trials in the Tour de France in a good position. Let's just hope these efforts don't weigh on me before tomorrow's mountains; fortunately, we've brought an excellent squad to this race, so I hope we can keep control of the situation well and not find any problems.

Quintana will carry the leader's jersey into the queen stage, which passes over the Col du Tourmalet and ends on the category 1 Col du Couraduque. He dedicated today's win to his wife.

"This victory is a tribute to my wife, which is celebrating her birthday today. It's already two times bringing her a victory on 17 June. I just want to say her I love her; she's a wonderful person, who loves and takes care of me and our daughters. A superb woman. Have a good one, Pao!"

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