Team Giant-Alpecin raced to 18th on the Critérium du Dauphiné team time trial, which was won by BMC Racing Team, as Rohan Dennis is the new overall leader.

The 24.5 kilometres course from Roanne to Montagny can be compared with the team time trial on stage 9 of this year’s Tour de France, which counts 28km and includes an uphill finish.

With an average speed of 47 km/h, Team Giant-Alpecin raced to 18th in 31’16”, 1’19” behind stage winner BMC Racing Team. Rohan Dennis is the new leader in the general classification after stage 3.

After passing the finish line, Albert Timmer said: “From a technical point of view we did a good time trial. The five guys who finished were evenly matched, which is very important in this discipline. Especially Tobias [Ludvigsson], Lawson [Craddock] and Chad [Haga] were very strong today.”

Chad Haga added: “It was a really hard course, almost always slightly uphill, so there wasn’t much chance to recover. Most of the team here is tired from the Giro, which showed quickly. Lawson was really strong, though, and took a lot of long pulls to get us to finish.”