Team Sky put in a strong performance to clock the second quickest time in the stage three team time trial at the Tour de France.
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) moved into the yellow jersey, level on time with team-mate Tejay van Garderen, with Thomas now just three seconds back on GC. Froome sits 18th, 55 seconds back on yellow.
“Just going off feeling and how we rode that I think we can be pretty happy. I think we gave it everything we had and it went pretty much all to plan. You can never tell who is going to be on a good day and who is not. I think all in all it worked out really well for us”, said Chris Froome.
“Obviously it didn’t start too well with the crash on stage one. But that’s bike racing and there’s still a lot of racing to come. We’re just taking it one day at a time at the moment and trying to get through the best we can until we get to the mountains. [Taking back some time] is reassuring. It would have been nice not to lose it in the first place, but I think there will be a lot more time lost throughout the GC group before we hit the mountains. One day you gain, one day you lose. That’s just the nature of the game really.”
Geraint Thomas added: “It was good, I think we rode really well. I’m a bit disappointed I feel like I didn’t really get it all out, I always seemed to be on the front on the descents, when we were doing short turns.
“There’s a few things [to improve], you always think you can go a little bit quicker, but I think we rode it really well technically and communicated well.
“We knew we could afford to lose two riders, Wout and Luke, but there was no set plan to do it, just to commit if they didn’t feel great and go as far as they could and that’s what they did.
“And that’s what it’s about, riding well like that together.”
