BMC dominates Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana team time trial

BMC Racing Team put in a dominant performance over the opening team time trial in Spain to take the victory with an impressive 24-second margin and ride Manuel Senni into the first yellow jersey of Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.

The 37.9km long course led the riders from the coastal part of Orihuela to the city with the same name, with a climb in the middle to further complicate matters for some of the lesser gifted time trialists.

BMC didn’t disappoint and finished the route in 43 minutes and 47 seconds. This was 21 seconds faster than Team Sky. The world champions at this discipline, Quick-Step Floors, had to settle for third place at 49 seconds from the winning team. Movistar, with Nairo Quintana, came in at just over a minute from BMC and are therefore 41 seconds behind Sky in the overall classification.

“It was a tough course and a very hard day especially in the first part of the race with that climb,” said Senni. “But we had strong guys like Stefan Küng, Michael Schär and Alessandro De Marchi able to do a great job pulling at the front. In fact, everyone did a good job today.

“I came into this race late, so I was just trying my hardest to stay with them for as long as possible. In the end, I still had good legs and was able to go all the way. On the run into the finish line I was sitting at the front, so before I knew it, I had crossed the line first. There wasn’t any plan for that to happen but I am super happy about it.”

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2017 – stage 1 results (Orihuela – Orihuela TTT):

General classification after stage 1: