BMC Racing claimed victory in the men’s team time trial on the opening day of the UCI Road World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain today, after beating Orica-GreenEdge.
The American team set the fastest time of 1:03:29 along the rolling 57.1km course, which was 32 seconds faster than Orica-GreenEdge, and 36 seconds ahead of third-placed Omega Pharma – Quick-Step.
Team Sky, led by Bradley Wiggins, finished two seconds further back in fourth, despite being reduced from their six starters to just four early on.
BMC Racing’s Tejay van Garderen said afterwards: “It feels incredible. The team was confident, but we were nervous coming into this. A couple of years ago, in 2012, we were two seconds off the win, so we have had that in the back of our minds for a couple of years now.
"We knew coming in that we had a strong team – it was just a matter of everything falling into place. We went out there, did our thing, stayed calm, and we delivered.”
BMC Racing were quickest at the first intermediate time check, after 23.5km, but had dropped to third at the second split, after 36.1km, as defending champions and favorites Omega Pharma – Quick-Step took charge of the event.
However, the Belgian team, who were last to start and whose team included three-time world individual time trial champion Tony Martin, then suffered a dreadful third sector and fell to 12 seconds behind BMC Racing by the third split, after 48.9km.
Omega Pharma – Quick-Step’s reign was then effectively ended when rain began to fall on the closing kilometers of the course and forced them to slow down, while Team Sky, who had been second at 48.9km, also saw their challenge wilt as their remaining four riders tired in the last quarter.
Top 20 Teams
1 BMC Racing Team1:03:29.85
2 Orica-GreenEdge0:00:31.84
3 Omega Pharma-QuickStep Cycling0:00:35.22
4 Team Sky0:00:37.29
5 Tinkoff-Saxo0:00:46.59
6 Movistar Team0:00:51.37
7 Trek Factory Racing0:01:01.47
8 Team Giant-Shimano0:01:26.60
9 Cannondale0:01:28.56
10 Garmin-Sharp0:01:44.80
11 FDJ.fr0:02:05.08
12 Astana Pro Team0:02:12.38
13 Team Katusha0:02:14.35
14 Belkin Pro Cycling Team0:02:28.16
15 Lampre-Merida0:02:30.08
16 Rusvelo0:02:44.81
17 Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise0:02:45.29
18 CCC Polsat Polkowice0:03:36.90
19 Team Europcar0:03:52.06
20 Ag2r-La Mondiale0:04:05.91
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