Chris Froome’s Team Sky came up four seconds short of winning the team time trial in the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday, as Greg Van Avermaet of victorious BMC claimed the yellow jersey.
BMC, led by Australian hope Richie Porte, clocked 38 minutes, 46 seconds over the 35.5-kilometer route that began and ended in Cholet near the Atlantic coast.
Sky finished second and Quick-Step Floors came third, seven seconds behind. World champion Sunweb featuring Tom Dumoulin finished fifth, 11 seconds back.
Former leader Peter Sagan was dropped by his Bora-hansgrohe teammates and fell to 80th overall, three minutes behind.
”It’s a good time,” said Froome, who dropped 51 seconds following a crash in the first stage. ”There are a lot of other good teams. As I’ve said from the start, the legs are good. It was a good test for us and the team. I’m very happy with the other riders.”
Van Avermaet earned the yellow jersey by leading BMC over the line, just ahead of American teammate Tejay van Garderen, who moved up to second overall, with the same time as Van Avermaet. Geraint Thomas of Sky is third overall, three seconds behind.
Among the overall favorites, Dumoulin is seventh (11 seconds behind), last year’s runner-up Rigoberto Uran is 10th (:35), Porte is 14th (:51), Movistar teammates Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa are 17th (:53), Froome is 18th (:55), Adam Yates is 20th (1:00) and 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali is 22nd (1:06).
The Tour heads into the cycling hotbed of Brittany on Tuesday for Stage 4, a mostly flat 195-kilometer leg from La Baule to Sarzeau that starts and ends on the Atlantic coast.
Tour de France 2018 – stage 3 results (Cholet – Cholet TTT):
| 1 | BMC | 38:46 |
| 2 | Team Sky | +04” |
| 3 | Quick-Step Floors | +07” |
| 4 | Mitchelton-Scott | +09” |
| 5 | Team Sunweb | +11” |
| 6 | EF Education First-Drapac | +35” |
| 7 | Bora-Hansgrohe | +50” |
| 8 | Astana | +51” |
| 9 | Katusha-Alpecin | +52” |
| 10 | Movistar | +53” |
| 11 | Bahrain-Merida | +01’06” |
| 12 | AG2R La Mondiale | +01’15” |
| 13 | LottoNl-Jumbo | ,, |
| 14 | Trek-Segafredo | +01’16” |
| 15 | UAE Team Emirates | +01’38” |
| 16 | Groupama-FDJ | +01’42” |
| 17 | Fortuneo-Samsic | +01’46” |
| 18 | Direct Energie | +01’51” |
| 19 | Lotto Soudal | +01’52” |
| 20 | Dimension Data | ,, |
| 21 | Wanty-Groupe Gobert | +02’24” |
| 22 | Cofidis | +03’23” |
General classification after stage 3:
| 1 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) | 9:08:55 |
| 2 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | ,, |
| 3 | Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) | +03” |
| 4 | Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) | +05” |
| 5 | Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) | +07” |
| 6 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 7 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | +11” |
| 8 | Søren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 9 | Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 10 | Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) | +35” |
| 11 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +50” |
| 12 | Daniel Oss (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 13 | Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) | +51” |
| 14 | Richie Porte (BMC) | ,, |
| 15 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +52” |
| 16 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +53” |
| 17 | Mikel Landa (Movistar) | ,, |
| 18 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | +55” |
| 19 | Taylor Phinney (EF Education First-Drapac) | +56” |
| 20 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +01’00” |
