Tour de France. BMC wins a team time trial. Van Avermaet is the leader, Majka with small losses



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No big surprises, but with significant changes in the overall standings, the time trial stage of the team, disputed in the vicinity of Cholet, has ended. A 35.5 kilometer course, where most of the teams struggled with a strong enough wind, required a maximum of effort on the part of the runners and a great concentration, because at the finish line, the differences were second. If anyone wanted to compensate for the losses of the first leg or to think of finding an advantage against the hills of Mur de Bretagne and the winds of Normandy, he had to give everything of himself.

Mitchelton-Scott and Team Sky, which started first, they immediately imposed tough conditions of competition. At the first measure of time, they were separated by only one second in favor of Mitchelton-Scott and among the teams that started first, only Movistar was able to start a fight here. With every next kilometer, Sky cyclists won a little bit, and the others lost a bit. At the finish line, Team Sky overtook Mitchelton-Scott by only 4 seconds. Movistar has already lost 49 seconds here, and joined the next Groupamy-FDJ team in one minute and 42 seconds. The situation has been changed by the BMC team. The team of Vice World Champions of Bergen has teamed up for the first time with Team Sky. The next day she overtook Kwiatkowski 's team of 6 seconds, and at the finish line she took the lead with 4 seconds in advance. The team that would be able to fight with the leaders had to wait almost until the end of the rivalry, as the Quick-Step and BORA-Hansgrohe teams set off.

Quick-Step cyclists, despite the relatively early abandonment The rivalry of the first leader of this year's Tour – Fernando Gaviria and minor problems with the organization of the composition (the train of team was torn apart by a larger change of one of the cyclists), quickly regrouped their strengths and managed to maintain a high pace. On the first measure they lost to Mitchelton-Scott only 3 seconds, on the next 6 seconds to the best BMC crew there, and at the finish line they reported a loss of 7 seconds, which they gave the third position behind BMC and Team Sky

BORA-hansgrohe cyclists started their last race, counting on the fight against the best and keeping a small lead, which after the first two stages Rafał Majka had several contenders in the fight general ranking. The plan was only partially successful. Admittedly, at the Majka team's first checkpoint and riding on Peter Sagan's yellow T-shirt, he lost only 13 seconds and held an excellent sixth place, every kilometer following the differences. In the second measure, the defeat lasted 37 seconds, and finally, leaving the ambitious struggling, but unable to keep pace with Sagan, they finished in seventh place, with a 50-second loss to BMC. 19659005] Despite the failure of the full implementation of the plan, the situation of Rafał Majka after the third stage seems pretty decent. Among the group of players aiming for the general classification, in the best situation are only Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), third in the standings (3 "losses to the leader), seventh Tom Dumoulin (+11") and ten Rigoberto Uran (+35 " Majka occupies position 11, recording a 50 second defeat to Greg Van Avermaet, who will set up a yellow jersey tomorrow

The other favorites are for the Poles, although the differences between them are only one second Some of the first-leg defeats were broken by Ritchie Porte (BMC), who currently stands at 14. (+51 "), Christopher Froome (Team Sky – 18th, with a loss of 55") and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), who is currently 20, with a minimal loss equivalent to Van Avermaet At this stage, low losses are due to Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), 22nd (+ 1 "06" ), Romain Bardet (AG2R) and Primo¾ Roglic (Lotto NL Jumbo), who record 1 "15" Head losses The situation of Nairo Quintana (Movistar) has become quite complicated, since he lost more than the first stage and now occupies a distant 59th place, rising from 2 "to 08" to the leader. Two potential candidates are better placed than Quintana to take the lead of the team leader: Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa, both losing to the leader at just 53 seconds and finishing 16th and 17th in the standings

. Today's wristwatch was able to make the first serious decisions, but faced with the confusion of the first step, it finally equalized the previously created differences. In the fourth stage, it probably will not change much, because after a flat course of 195 kilometers from La Baule to Sarzeau, we can expect the best arrival of the group and maintain the current situation in the ranking [19659007]. . Try our new newsletter. We invite you, £ ukasz Godlewski and Janusz Sadłowski

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