BMC repeat as team time trial World Champions

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BMC won their second consecutive World Championship team time trial title Sunday in a hard-fought four-way battle with Etixx-QuickStep, Orica-GreenEdge and the Movistar Team. The US team set the fastest splits at each of the three intermediate time checks and then finished strong in downtown Richmond, coming in 11 seconds faster than runner-up Etixx-QuickStep and 30 seconds better than third-placed Movistar.

Tinkoff-Saxo came out the big losers, with Michael Rogers and Michael Valgren crashing as the team approached the second intermediate time check, forcing the squad to pause and regroup. They eventually finished last on the day, more than eight minutes off the winning mark.

BMC, on the other hand, cruised over the 38.8km course without issues, while Etixx put in their own flawless ride, consistently coming in just behind BMC in all the time splits.

"I was a bit surprised about the early split time compared to BMC Racing Team," said Etixx-QuickStep's Tony Martin. " So, for sure, the morale was a bit affected early on. But then as we went along the parcours, we were gaining seconds back. I think that gave us a small push. We were really fighting, and we had a really strong performance all the way through the finish line. So, I am satisfied about the overall performance."

The battle for the bronze medal between Movistar and Orica played out much differently, however, with the Australian team starting out strong but fading near the end, while the Spanish team added to its power in the finale. Movistar was sixth fastest in the first time split, then fourth and third.

Optum Pro Cycling was the best of the Continental teams, setting the standard for the early starters and holding the hot seat until Belgian Pro Continental team Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise knocked them off.

IAM Cycling was the first WorldTour team on the course and dutifully crushed all of the time checks, taking over the lead until LottoNL-Jumbo grabbed it, followed in succession by Giant-Alpecin and then Movistar.

Orica’s disappointing result after never having finished outside the podium since the discipline was reintroduced in 2012 meant Etixx briefly had the lead next, but BMC quickly took care of that.

With Katusha falling off the lead pace early, the race boiled down to just Movistar, Etixx, Orica and BMC. The American team led Etixx by four seconds at the first time check, 13 seconds at the second and just six at the third. The shrinking margin apparently provided some impetus, however, as they added another five seconds on the final kilometres.

For Movistar, the bronze was the culmination of a concerted effort to improve their team time trial abilities.

"I think this is the confirmation of our huge progression on team time trials throughout these years," said team manager Eusebio Unzué. "They brought us many good results in the past, but it's something bigger to step onto the podium in the World Championships at last - all teams with TT specialists bring their A-team here and make many efforts to perform at their best, and in such a difficult scenario, we were able to claim bronze."

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