BMC lived up to their status as the overwhelming favourites for the Tour de France team time trial when they came out on top after a hugely thrilling battle with Team Sky. In the end, they were just 0.62 seconds faster than their British rivals while Movistar were four seconds adrift in third. Chris Froome (Sky) could console himself with the fact that he retained the yellow jersey.

 

In the last few days, everybody have been talking about BMC as the obvious favourites for the Tour de France team time trial. After all the Americans are the reigning world champions in the discipline and they won the Duaphiné TTT on a similarly hilly course with a largely identical line-up.

 

Team leader Tejay van Garderen had done nothing to hide that he hoped to take both the yellow jersey and the stage win at the end of their 28km ride through Britanny. In the end, they had to settle for a little less as they lived up to their status as stage favourites but missed out on the overall lead.

 

BMC were the second was the penultimate team to roll down the start ramp and things were looking good when they stopped the clock in 32.15 to go just four seconds faster than Movistar who had been the leader for a while. At the bottom of the final 1.6km climb to the finish, they had been just 1 second faster but an impressively strong Rohan Dennis rode three seconds faster up the ascent than the Spanish team.

 

However, it was definitely no foregone conclusion that they would take the stage win. The Sky team of race leader Chris Froome had been one second faster at the second check and had even extended it to five seconds at the bottom of the climb. As they still had six riders left, things were looking promising for the Brits but from there it started to unravel.

 

Wout Poels was the first to lose contact and moments later Nicolas Roche was also in difficult. That forced Froome, Richie Porte, Leopold König and Geraint Thomas to slow down to wait for their Irish teammate and that proved to be costly. As they crossed the line, they missed out on the stage win by a tiny margin of just 0.62 seconds.

 

Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde used Movistar’s third place to move into the overall top 10 and barely lost any time to Froome. However, things were worse for Alberto Contador as Tinkoff-Saxo lost 28 seconds in fourth which opened Contador’s deficit compared to Froome out to 1.03.

 

However, the big loser was again Vincenzo Nibali as Astana could only manage fifth, 35 seconds off the pace, on a day when they had expected to be among the winners. The Italian now finds himself with 2.22 to make up in the mountains.

 

Mathias Frank was another winner as IAM did a great ride to take sixth, pushing Etixx-QuickStep down to seventh after the former world champions suffered without Tony Martin. Lampre-Merida, LottoNL-Jumbo and Ag2r completed the top 10.

 

Another big loser was Joaquim Rodriguez whose Katusha team was down to just seven riders. The Russian team could only manage 18th and the Spaniard lost a massive 1.52 to Froome. Warren Barguil and Giant-Alpecin were also among the losers as the Frenchman lost 1.36 to the race leader.

 

Froome missed out on the stage win but retained his overall lead with a 12-second advantage over van Garderen. He takes the yellow jersey into tomorrow’s first rest day and the first stage in the Pyrenees where the riders face the first serious climbing. After an almost completely flat ride, the stage ends at the top of the HC climb of La Pierre-Saint-Martin which has never featured in the Tour before.

 

A hilly course

After yesterday’s stage for puncheurs, the scene was set for the first big test of the overall contenders in stage 9 which was the 28km team time trial. The course brought the riders from Vannes to Plumelec and was by no means a flat affair as it included three climbs, including a tough 1.7km ascent to the finish.

 

The depleted Orica-GreenEDGE team were first to roll down the ramp with their six riders and they knew that they were not in contention for the win. Hence, they rolled safely through the stage to make sure that they all made the time cut and their time of 37.13 would see them end 4.58 off the pace in last place.

 

Best time for Lampre-Merida

Bretagne did much better with a time of 34.01 to set a first serious mark and move into the lead. Team leader Eduardo Sepulveda rode strongly on the final climb to set a time that would ultimately be good enough for 18th.

 

Lampre-Merida finally got a highlight in a race marked by several lows when they stopped the clock in 33.03. That time turned out to be hard to beat and would ultimately be good enough for 8th.

 

FDJ off the pace

FDJ have never been among the specialists in this discipline and they lost time throughout the stage to stop the clock in 33.48 and slot into second. That would ultimately be good enough for 14th for Thibaut Pinot and his teammates.

 

Team Europcar looked like they were about to create a major surprise when they set a very good first split time but from there they lost ground. In the end their time of 33.57 was good enough for third and ultimately for 17th.

 

Bora-Argon 18 off the pace

Bora-Argon 18 won the Giro del Trentino team time trial earlier this year but in this field they had a harder time. They stopped the clock in 33.47 to slot into second but would end the day in 13th.

 

Lotto Soudal were expected to lose time in today’s stage and that turned out to be correct. They slotted into fourth and ended the stage in 15th which saw Tony Gallopin drop out of the top 10.

 

IAM take the lead

IAM were expected to set the first serious mark and they did a strong ride to gain time throughout most of the course. In the end, their time of 32.53 was 10 seconds faster than Lampre-Merida’s.

 

MTN-Qhubeka don’t have much experience in this discipline and so they were expected to have a difficult day. Despite Edvald Boasson Hagen taking some massive turns, that proved to be correct as they had to settle for 20th with a time of 34.11.

 

Astana moves into the hot seat

LottoNL-Jumbo were set back by injuries but put together a consistent rider to slot into third with 33.29. That was enough to hold off the Trek team which was 11 seconds slower and had to settle for 11th without Fabian Cancellara on the roster.

 

However, everybody had their eyes on Astana who were expected to take a comfortable lead. However, the Kazakhs only beat IAM narrowly at the time checks and at the finish their time of 32.50 was just 3 seconds faster.

 

Bad day for Cannondale-Garmin

Cannondale-Garmin got their stage off to a very bad start but gradually got back up to speed. In the end their stopped the clock in 33.44 to slot into sixth and would end the stage in 12th.

 

Cofidis have no GC ambitions in this race so they took it easy, stopping the clock in 34.47. Only Orica-GreenEDGE would do worse than the Frenchmen.

 

Movistar take the lead

Katusha were down to five riders even before the second intermediate check and that forced them to wait for Marco Haller on the final climb. That turned out to be costly as they slotted into 12th with a time of 34.08.

 

Movistar were expected to be the first big threat to Astana and they lived up to expectations. After a slow start, they rode strongly throughout the rest of the course and ultimately went 31 seconds faster than their Kazakh rivals.

 

Good ride by Ag2r

Barguil always knew that it would be a difficult day and his Giant-Alpecin team lost a lot of time on the final climb. They slotted into 11th and would ultimately finish the stage in 16th.

 

Things were looking disastrous for Ag2r who been close to the bottom at the first time check but as we got into the hillier terrain, they moved up. At the finish, they slotted into sixth and ended the stage in 10th.

 

A thrilling finale

Etixx-QuickStep missed Martin a lot and so it was no surprise that they were off the pace. They stopped the clock in 33.00 to slot into third with just three of the favourites remaining.

 

Tinkoff-Saxo had been faster than Movistar at the first check but were unable to maintain the speed. In the end, they stopped the clock in 32.43 and that was only good enough for provisional second.

 

At this point, it was already clear that it was going to come down to the wire between Movistar, Sky and BMC who had been close to each other at the second check. An impressive Dennis made sure that BMC took the lead with a four-second margin and after Sky had to wait for Roche, they had to settle for second.