Photo credits @ UAE
UAE Team Emirates powered to victory in the team time trial in stage three of Paris-Nice today, as they took advantage of clement weather to claim the yellow jersey.
The team averaged 51.4km/h across the 26.9km course, taking the win by 15 seconds from Jayco AlUla and 20 seconds from EF Education-EasyPost in Auxerre.
As a result, Brandon McNulty stepped into the yellow jersey after it was vacated by New Zealander Laurence Pithie (Groupama-FDJ).
Visma-Lease A Bike was the penultimate team home, doing better than Bora-Hansgrohe but not coming close to the win with a time of 32:01. Four minutes later, the now-former leader Pithie and his team’s GC hopeful David Gaudu raced home to finish the day in 14th place with a time of 32:24.
“I love this discipline, and we knew we were a strong team coming into it,” Jay Vine said after racing home as part of the winning squad. “Everyone is pretty good at TTs in this team, so we knew we had a good shot at the win. We were fortunate to have pretty good weather as well, so to have a win like this is really, really cool.
“I’m not going to lie and say it didn’t make a difference. The rain came, and we came just before it, and for sure, it was beneficial for us,
“The team wins a lot, but every win is cherished just as much as the other. So, we’re happy to win and there’s something special about winning a team time trial because you win together and it’s not just one person crossing the line, you know?
“I think [winning the race] is still a dream, but I think it puts us in a very good position for the GC with four of us. We can look to fight in the next few days, but it’s definitely not going to be about defending. There’s going to be a lot of attacking racing in the days to come.”
Earlier, world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step outfit set the fastest time at the checkpoint atop the Côte de Jussy but ultimately finished 22 seconds down in fourth place as the weather swiftly deteriorated.
Fisher-Black was the first of several UAE riders over the line, towing GC contender João Almeida, new race leader Brandon McNulty, and Jay Vine behind him.
Fifth-placed Ineos Grenadiers benefited from the better weather having set off early but ended equal on time with Soudal Quick-Step.
With only a few teams left out on the course, glorious sunshine turned to rain, which had a decisive effect on the day’s results.
Bora-Hansgrohe was even worse off than Soudal Quick-Step, with Primož Roglič’s team crossing the line in 10th place, 54 seconds down on the race leaders and losing critical time in the general classification.
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