BMC Racing win Tour de France TTT

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BMC Racing Team claimed an emphatic victory in the stage 3 team time trial at the Tour de France, toppling Team Sky and Quick-Step Floors to propel Greg Van Avermaet into the maillot jaune. His teammate Tejay van Garderen finished on the same time to take second place overall, with Sky's Geraint Thomas third in the general classifications at three seconds.

Van Avermaet was thrilled to don the yellow jersey, which he last wore in 2016 when he led the race for three stages.

"It's a big goal to get yellow in the first week," Van Avermaet said. "I wore it once before and was an incredible feeling to wear it. I've got it for a second time and I'm going to enjoy it fully tomorrow. For a rider, it's something special. I want to thank my teammates because without them it wouldn't have happened.

"A team time trial is always something special," Van Avermaet continued. "The whole team does the effort for one goal in winning the stage and I think that our team are masters in it. I'm really happy to be a part of it."

BMC's performance helped to push leader Richie Porte into a better position after the Australian lost time on the opening stage, but more importantly, they earned a big morale boost through winning the stage.

"Obviously it was a tough one today but the big strong guys did a great job and it was a perfect team time trial," Porte said. "It puts us right back in the game. It would have been nice not to have thrown 51 seconds away on the first day. To win with these guys is a great feeling."

With BMC Racing potentially folding if they can't find a sponsor, the victory was another important milestone in the search for funding.

"It's not a bad thing for a team that's looking for a sponsor to have the yellow jersey," Porte said. "We're taking some time back on some of the other GC guys. It's still a long way to go, six more hectic days and the mountains."

Sky set the fast early time to nudge Mitchelton-Scott off the hot seat, but BMC, another early starter, flew through the line four seconds quicker.

Geraint Thomas, who was Sky's best-placed man in sixth overnight just 15 seconds off race leader Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and, more importantly, one second ahead of Van Avermaet, had to be content with moving into third place on the standings at three seconds.

"To be honest, I didn't even think about [taking the yellow jersey]," Thomas said. "It was all about trying to win the stage, and that would have been a nice bonus on top of it. We really wanted to try and get that stage today because we've been close in the past in Tour TTTs. Close, but not quite quick enough.

Once BMC and Sky were through, the fight for the yellow jersey had a lull as the other teams of the overall contenders focused mainly on limiting their losses to the fastest teams. Sunweb came the closest to the top time, just 12 seconds behind BMC to keep Tom Dumoulin in contention at 12 seconds from Van Avermaet.

Quick-Step Floors, the second to last team on course, muscled in to take the third spot, nudging Mitchelton-Scott and Sunweb down a rung, but it was a disappointment for the Belgian team as Fernando Gaviria was dropped early on and Philippe Gilbert did not gain enough to move into the race lead, falling five seconds short. Peter Sagan lost contact with the Bora-Hansgrohe squad on the climb before the second time check and fell well out of contention for regaining the maillot jaune.

Of the major overall contenders, Dumoulin continued in a strong position just 11 seconds down in seventh, while Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) climbed to 10th overall at 35 seconds. Richie Porte (BMC) is up to 14th at 51 seconds, while defending champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) moved up to 18th at 55 seconds.

Froome said it was reassuring to gain back some of the time he lost to his crash on the opening stage. "It would have been nice not to lose it in the first place," he said. "I think there will be a lot more time lost throughout the GC group before we hit the mountains. One day you gain, one day you lose, that's the nature of the game."

How it unfolded

Bright sunshine and a light breeze greeted the teams as they lined up for the 35.5km team time trial in Cholet. Mitchelton-Scott were the first squad to take to the course, and although they were the obvious fastest first time, they also topped Team Sky and BMC at the early check on the course. The latter two squads were locked at one second behind the Australian team, but Sky began to pull away in the second half of the course.

More boos from the spectators dogged Team Sky as they drove an aggressive pace along the course, one that distanced first Luke Rowe and then Wout Poels. The remaining six stayed together to the finish, with Michal Kwiatkowski and Froome leading to the line to top Mitchelton-Scott by just under five seconds.

Movistar were clearly not going well, giving up 27 seconds by the second time check. They were down to five men - only Andrey Amador and Marc Soler were left with the three leaders as they desperately tried to limit their losses. The Spanish team lost 49 seconds to Sky by the line, another blow to their GC hopes already hit by the stage 1 disaster suffered by Nairo Quintana.

While Team Sky's performance was impressive, BMC were even better, coming over the climb for the second time check with six seconds over Sky. Van Avermaet powered his team toward a potential maillot jaune, going four seconds quicker than Sky at the finish.

Next in line was EF-Drapac, with the wounded Lawson Craddock continuing to show immense grit to stick with his squad - not merely a passenger but continuing to work to keep them in contention. They came across the second check 24 seconds behind BMC Racing, and with Craddock holding on to the finish, ceded 35 seconds to BMC.

"He was struggling a lot with the corners when we did the recon because he couldn't get out of the saddle," his teammate Taylor Phinney said. "To do a TTT at that speed and be able to hang on and push through, he's shown us all a lot of character."

AG2R La Mondiale struggled to keep pace with the leading teams, putting Romain Bardet at a distinct disadvantage by losing a minute to BMC, the situation much worse for UAE Team Emirates, who ceded 1:38 - not much to help for Dan Martin's GC hopes.

No teams came close to BMC and Sky until Team Sunweb powered across the line just 12 seconds slower than BMC in fourth. Bahrain-Merida was down to four riders early on, and it hurt their chances with the team of Vincenzo Nibali losing 1:06 to BMC.

The fight for the maillot jaune intensified as Bora-Hansgrohe started their ride, with Quick-Step Floors being pushed to the breaking point to put Philippe Gilbert into yellow jersey contention. After second-placed Fernando Gaviria lost contact, the team were forced to sit up and let Tim Declercq catch back on.

The Belgian squad got their act back together, with Terpstra powering four other riders including Gilbert just six seconds behind BMC at the second check. They continued on the same trajectory, losing only one more second by the line, but it wasn't enough for the team to take the maillot jaune.

Bora-Hansgrohe had similar problems, with Sagan losing contact on the climb before the second time check to slip out of the yellow jersey. The team held on for seventh best, 50 seconds slower than BMC.

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