Tour de France 2018: BMC edge out Team Sky to win stage three time trial and earn Greg van Avermaet yellow jersey

There are few better ways to assess a Tour de France than an early team time trial, and after the crashes and chaos of the opening two days, stage three gave a glimpse of what may be to come over the next three weeks. Richie Porte’s BMC edged out Team Sky for the stage win while Nairo Quintana’s Movistar lost ground, as the sprinters were sieved away and the general classification took shape.

This was a positive day for Chris Froome as he earned back time lost in his stage-one crash, as well as an indication as to just how strong Porte’s challenge could be once this race enters mountains, with such a reliable support group surrounding the 33-year-old Australian – who himself played such an important role as domestique in Froome’s early success.

Froome’s team-mate Geraint Thomas narrowly missed out on claiming the yellow jersey, clocking four seconds shy of Porte’s American team BMC, who finished quickest over the 35.5km route around Cholet with a time of 38 min 50 sec. Quick-Step Floors finished third (+7 sec), Adam Yates’s Mitchelton-Scott finished fourth (+ 9 sec) while Tom Dumoulin’s Team Sunweb finished fifth (+11 sec).

The result sent BMC’s Belgian rider Greg van Avermaet into the overall race lead and the yellow jersey. Van Avermaet, who has Olympic road race gold and a Paris-Roubaix victory on his CV, and is named after the legendary Greg LeMond, wore the yellow jersey for three days during the 2016 edition and although he is unlikely to mount a challenge in the long-term, the make-up of the coming days offers him the chance to stay in yellow.

Other riders suffered here, like French favourite Romain Bardet who lost significant time with Ag2r La Mondiale of more than a minute, and Movistar and Quintana who gave up 53 seconds.

Team time trials test the both the physical strength and emotional harmony of a team, with the rules structured to prevent the strongest riders making a solo charge and forcing each squad to make difficult decisions over whether to leave team-mates behind, and there were indications of splits and frustrations in several groups.

Greg van Avermaet celebrates claiming the yellow jersey (AFP/Getty Images)

Peter Sagan, who had won stage two and the right to wear the yellow jersey during stage three, was one of those who struggled, holding his hand up at one point as he asked his Bora-Hansgrohe team to relax the pace before eventually letting them go on ahead. He lost the yellow jersey but will wear his more familiar green as the leader of the sprint classification when the race resumes on Tuesday.

The stage one winner Fernando Gaviria also fell away from his team-mates while Katusha-Alpecin’s Marcel Kittel was seen gesticulating angrily at his, and it meant many of the power riders were knocked down from the top of the general classification.

Of the GC contenders Quintana has been the biggest loser over the opening three days, now more than two minutes off the pace, while many people’s two favourites before the Tour, Porte and Froome, are well placed 51 and 55 seconds back respectively, in a broad group with other threats like Yates, Mikel Landa and Vincenzo Nibali.

Tuesday’s stage four will be another opportunity for the sprinters to shine before a run of gruelling and treacherous stages leading up to the first rest day. There remains the lurking possibility of a leadership contest within several teams, including Team Sky with Thomas currently ahead of Froome and determined to step out of his teammate’s shadow, but this was a day to show their collective muscle – and one on which BMC showed just a little bit more.

General Classification after Stage three: 1 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 9hrs 08mins 55secs, 2 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team at same time, 3 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky at 3secs, 4 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Quick-Step Floors at 5secs, 5 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors at 7secs, 6 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors at same time, 7 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb at 11secs, 8 Soren Kragh Andersen (Den) Team Sunweb, 9 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb at same time, 10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale at 35secs, 11 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe at 50secs, 12 Daniel Oss (Ita) Bora-Hansgrohe at same time, 13 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team at 51secs, 14 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team at same time, 15 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin at 52secs, 16 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team at 53secs, 17 Mikel Landa (Spa) Movistar Team at same time, 18 Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky at 55secs, 19 Taylor Phinney (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale at 56secs, 20 Adam Yates (Gbr) Mitchelton-Scott at 1min 00secs