For the second time in just three years, Rohan Dennis finds himself in the leader's jersey at the Criterium du Dauphiné after his BMC team won the team time trial.

"I already took the lead in the Dauphiné two years ago," he said. "It's the same sort of situation, after a time trial. It's special, just before the Tour de" France. It's a big race. It's a big objective for the team.

"We came here with strong guys for the team time trial. We always planned to use some riders early to win. There are sometimes casualties, which happened a bit earlier than we expected but knowing that, in the end it's been a perfect strategy. We adjusted our speed. The turns Tejay and I took were a little bit longer and the other guys could take a bit more rest. We won by four seconds over Astana and we took the jersey.

"I'm two years older than when I first received this jersey. I'm stronger. I have been targeting time trials a bit more and I've raised my GC ambitions compared to two years ago."