The FDJ team did one of the best performances in its history in today's team time trial at the Tour de Romandie. Thibaut Pinot and his teammates finished seventh in a stage which was won by Team Sky 0.63 of a second ahead of Orica-GreenEdge. They were 22 seconds off the best time but conceded less than 10 seconds to Astana, BMC and Etiix-QuickStep

"We are delighted," says sports director Yvon Madiot. "I can say that the guys were really focused and were fully focused already yesterday. This morning we hoped for a place in the top 7 or the top 9 but expected to lose more time."

While the 7th place is a success, Jérémy Roy was disappointed. He took the start but then struggled to recover from the effort. He lost 10 meters, fought for 400 meters to get back but was left behind.

"It's a shame because if Jeremy had been there in the end, we could have been in the top 5 but that can happen in a team time trial. Similarly, we thought it would be a little bit too hard for Cédric Pineau who has not raced a lot lately. The others, however, were very good. Benoît Vaugrenard has a small cold but he did a big job until the last climb. Alexandre Géniez is in great shape and loves this discipline. Matthieu Ladagnous has responded well as always. Finally Steve Morabito really brings us a lot. He was very important in the approach to this stage. He reassures us a lot and has repeatedly said that we are also able to ride very fast."

At the finish, Thibaut Pinot was very satisfied. His smile spoke volumes. Yet he admitted to having suffered a bit at the beginning but finished very well. In the end, he is 18 seconds ahead of Dan Martin (Garmin-Cannondale) and Nairo Quintana (Europcar) 19 seconds ahead of Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), 33 seconds ahead of Rafal Majka (Saxo-Tinkoff), 44 seconds ahead of Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and 1 minute ahead of Romain Bardet and Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R-La Mondiale).

"Thibaut is relieved but he gets better and better in the time trials. He was the one to set the pace but he did it smoothly. Our Tour de Romandie has started!"