Tour 2018: BMC wins team time trial

In the 35,5 km long team time trial of the third stage around Cholet, the four-time overall winner raced into second place with the Sky-Express, narrowly missing out on the day's victory.

At the end of the chase, only four seconds separated Sky from the victorious team BMC Racing, whose captain Richie Porte (Australia) celebrated at least a respectable success in the fight for overall victory.

World champion Peter Sagan had to give up the yellow jersey after just one day. The Slovakian showed a good race for a long time with the German team Bora-hansgrohe, but then lost the connection and finally the top of the overall lead, which he had conquered with the sprint victory on Sunday. The new man in yellow is BMC classic hunter Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium).

In addition to challenger Porte, the big winner among the top favorites was Froome. Alongside his teammates, the 33-year-old only needed 38:50 minutes to complete the route and thus made up a lot of ground on his rivals.

The lead over the Colombian climbing ace Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) increased by 49 seconds. The gap to France's hopeful Romain Bardet (AG2R), who lost 1:11 minutes to Froome, was even greater. Former Tour winner Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) still conceded 1:02 minutes.

For Froome, the good performance in the first “TTT” of the tour since 2015 was of great importance. On Saturday, at the start of the tour, the Briton fell 51 seconds ahead of well-known rivals, including Bardet. He now made up for lost time.

However, the damage done to his reputation in the asthma drug affair is much more difficult for Froome to correct. As with the team presentation last Thursday, he was once again exposed to antipathy from the audience.

Four-time time trial world champion Tony Martin did not achieve a top result. The 33-year-old and his team Katusha-Alpecin, which also includes the Germans Marcel Kittel, Rick Zabel and Nils Politt, took ninth place on the technically demanding course with lots of waves and a steep climb.

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Tour 2018: BMC wins team time trial

Chris Froome defied the renewed boos from the spectators at the 105th Tour de France and showed strength after the completely messed up start.

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