During the first week of the 102nd Tour de France the team worked for André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal). In today's TTT, the "gorilla" worked for his teammates.

"Today it was very difficult. If you can ride the mountains at your own pace, it is of course easier than if you hit them at full gas like today," he told Radsportnews.com

Lotto Soudal went full gas from the start to keep Tony Gallopin near the front the overall standings. But the Frenchman lost 1:36 minutes and slid from fourth to 11th place.

In the next few days Greipel will work again for Gallopin. But he still has an eye on his own target. 

"It would also be nice if I could wear  the green jersey again for a couple of days. Three points are not much.. Maybe I can score a few points somewhere," he said.

"We were ambitious because team time trials are always an honour," Lars Bak told Ritzau. "It is a team discipline and it is never fun to be distanced.

"We were a bit too heavy and Adam Hansen who is a good time triallists, has an injured shoulder so he couldn't use a TT bike.

"It was very hard in the end. On the penultimate climb, the team started to disintegrate and on the final climb André and I worked hard to stay with Tony Gallopin. We suffered but now it is over."