Tour de Suisse: BMC Racing win opening team time trial in Frauenfeld

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BMC Racing won the opening stage of the Tour de Suisse, dominating the 18km team time trial with a time of 20:18 and putting local boy Stefan Küng in the yellow leader’s jersey of the race.

Team Sunweb took second on the day, with a time of 20:36, while Quick Step Floors were third at 20:45, just fractions of a second ahead of Bora-Hansgrohe.

The American-registered WorldTour squad were among the pre-race favourites for the stage having brought their ‘A’ team to their sponsor’s home race. GC contender Richie Porte and his super domestique Tejay Van Garderen led the way, while Simon Gerrans, Greg Van Avermaet and Alessandro De Marchi completed the strong line-up along with Küng and fellow Swiss rider Michael Schar.

They duly delivered, flying along the 18km course at over 54km/h and smashing the intermediate checkpoint along the way. Küng, who hails from the town of Wil, just 20km away from Frauenfeld, was first over the line in his home region. The 24-year-old time trialist also takes the young rider’s jersey and the unique ‘best local rider’ prize.

After just one day and 18km of racing, the result sees Porte installed as the overall favourite. Only two summit finishes feature on a route that looks softer than in previous instalments, while a final day 35km time trial will be very much to his liking.

As for the riders who will be looking to beat the Australian, Wilco Kelderman and Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) lie 19 seconds back with Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa (Movistar) 33 seconds down. Gorka and Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) are 36 seconds down, while defending champion Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin) has his work cut out, lying 46 seconds back.

How it happened

The 2018 Tour de Suisse opened with a team time trial around the northeastern town of Frauenfeld. At 18km and with rolling roads in the first half of the stage, the test was the first sort-out of a race heavier on time trials and lighter on mountains than in recent years.

UAE-Team Emirates were the early pacemakers, putting in a time of 21:08 as the fourth team home. Team Sky came next, failing to best the UAE squad. It was something of a surprise given their pedigree in the discipline but less so given that much of their Tour de France squad is currently competing at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

LottoNL-Jumbo, EF-Drapac and Dimension Data also failed to beat UAE Team Emirates but then came Quick Step Floors with the fastest time at the intermediate checkpoint despite dropping riders along the way. The Belgian team eventually crossed the line at 20:45 - putting them at the top of the leader board.

Movistar - a traditionally strong outfit in this discipline despite their relative lack of solo time trial stars, set the second fastest time soon after. The Spanish team, featuring both Nairo Quintana and Mikel Landa but not a recently ill Alejandro Valverde, clocked in at 20:51.

Peter Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe team flew through the intermediate only five seconds down and came the closest to Quick Step Floors at the line, ending up just fractions of a second away from the hot seat. As stage favourites Mitchelton-Scott and BMC Racing set off, Bahrain-Merida were the next team to break the 21-minute barrier, serving up an impressive time of 20:54.

World team time trial champions Team Sunweb went out fast, and were down to four riders before the halfway point. They were fastest at the checkpoint but struggled to keep their quartet together on the latter half of the stage but still held on to set a new fastest time at 20:37.

It was then Mitchelton-Scott’s turn to finish, coming in at 20:47. Out on course, BMC Racing was going even faster, taking eight seconds off Sunweb’s checkpoint time.

At the finish they decimated the time of the German squad, leaving Katusha-Alpecin to finish last and round off the proceedings with a time of 21:04.

Küng was happy to take the yellow jersey and will no doubt wear it with pride during Sunday’s 155km stage around Frauenfeld.

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