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Stage 3 of the 2015 Criterium du Dauphine, a team time trial, has been taken out by American outfit BMC Racing Team. This has in turn delivered the yellow jersey for the leader of the race to Aussie Rohan Dennis.
BMC were the third team down the ramp and straight away dominated those teams that had gone before them, going through the intermediate time check with a 44-second lead over the Giant-Alpecin squad.
Astana and Movistar started not long afterwards and while being behind the time of BMC at the time check on course, were not far off the pace. Movistar were 17 seconds down and had an incredible second half of the race to finish just five seconds off the pace in third, a single second behind Astana.
This makes Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valeverde the strongest in the general classification battle behind the BMC duo of Teejay Van Garderen and Dennis.
Katusha were one team who will be very disappointed with their effort, finishing in 14th place 1:05 behind BMC.
The final two teams away today were Cannondale-Garmin and Sky. Both struggled in the closing stages and lost a lot of time, Sky 35 seconds and Cannondale-Garmin 43 seconds. They will be massive blows for both Chris Froome of Sky, and Andrew Talansky and Daniel Martin of Cannondale-Garmin.
Romain Bardet, (AG2R) Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) were also among the big losers from the day.
Overall, the time gaps were certainly bigger than one was expecting and it sets up an exciting couple of days in the mountains with plenty of attacking needed from riders who lost time.
Tomorrow is the race’s longest stage, but is more or less a day for the sprinters. As such, Dennis should be able to defend yellow while the big guns save themselves up for the mountain days to come.
In the end though, BMC way too good in Stage 3 of the Dauphine.
The first major shake-up in the Criterium du Dauphine general classification looms, as the peloton take on a 24.5km team time trial that rolls over some small hills. Join The Roar for live updates and coverage of Stage 3 from 9:15pm (AEST).
Peter Kennaugh (Sky) won Stage 1 in a solo attack to put himself into the leader’s yellow jersey, which was followed by a bunch sprint win to Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) on Stage 2.
Kennaugh retains the yellow leader’s jersey for the time being but that could change today.
Interestingly the first 96 riders in the general classification are separated by just 12 seconds, meaning the chance of a shake up of positions is really on the cards. However, there is a solid chance Kennaugh might keep the yellow, with Sky being one of the day’s key favourites.
The route has a maximum total elevation change of about 230 metres from start to finish. Setting out from Roanne, three of the first four kilometres are more or less flat, before the riders head uphill to the first checkpoint, reached after 8km of racing.
Following the first checkpoint the course becomes a downhill false flat, then sharply drops off to the second intermediate checkpoint on course, situated in Perreux.
From there the final 10km of the stage are gradually uphill all the way to the finish line in Montagny, 483 metres above sea level.
On a normal stage these climbs wouldn’t even rate a mention, but on a team time trial when maximum effort is being applied, how teams combat the climbs will decide the outcome.
Besides Team Sky, the other favourites are BMC, Orica-GreenEDGE and Etixx–Quickstep, all of who excel in the discipline of the team time trial. BMC have the likes of Rohan Dennis and Teejay Van Garderen, while Etixx of course have Tony Martin in their ranks. OGE have won a lot of team time trials of late, including the first stage in this year’s Giro d’Italia, and will be keen to do it again.
Prediction
Kennaugh will just hold onto his yellow jersey, but it won’t be Sky winning the stage. BMC’s roster looks the goods to win ahead of OGE, Etixx and Sky, who will all be separated by less than 10 seconds.
Join The Roar for our live coverage of Stage 3 of the 2015 Criterium Du Dauphine from 9:15pm (AEST), and don’t forget to leave your comments below!