BMC wins team time trial on stage 9 of Tour; Froome leads

Wearing a tailor-made yellow skin suit, Froome hammered down on the pedals as his team reached speeds of 70 kph (43.4 mph) approaching the stage-ending final climb of 1.7 kilometers (1.1 miles) with an average gradient of 6.2 percent.

PLUMELEC, France (AP) – Chris Froome kept the Tour de France leader’s yellow jersey as his Team Sky finished one second behind Tejay van Garderen’s BMC team in the team time trial on Sunday.

But many eyes will now be on Tejay Van Garderen, who was second to Froome at last month’s Criterium du Dauphine, and sits second overall at 12sec.

Van Garderen paid homage to the BMC rider who wore the first yellow jersey of the race after his victory in last weekend’s individual time trial in Utrecht.

Nibali is now two minutes and 22 seconds adrift of Froome, while Alberto Contador is one minute and three seconds down after he and Tinkoff-Saxo ended stage nine 27 seconds behind Sky.

Colombian climber Nairo Quintana’s Movistar team finished third but only gave up 4sec by the finish and the 2014 Giro d’Italia victor is up to ninth overall at 1min 59sec.

MUR DE BRETAGNE, France – Vincenzo Nibali is making a patchy start to the defense of his Tour de France title, and if Saturday’s eighth stage is anything to go by it may not get much better in the mountains.

“I’ve got to admit I am surprised he’s lost so much time already”. “Hopefully this was just a bad day, otherwise this Tour will be hard”, Astana manager Giuseppe Martinelli said.

The 27-year-old Vuillermoz beat Ireland’s Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) by five seconds as Spain’s Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) led the top names 10 seconds behind to take third place after a 181.5-km ride from Rennes.

Froome then launched one of his trademark blistering attacks, but after Vuillermoz responded in kind, Froome let him go and rolled in 10 seconds later in eighth place.

The 28-kilometre route was technical, twisting and finished with a 1.7km ascent to the finish, where time gaps were expected to open up.

As they started to climb, thousands of raucous fans – many of whom were waving the black and white flag of Brittany – cheered them on loudly.

“We definitely can’t put it down to him struggling up the final climb”.

Defending champion Vincenzo Nibali’s problems continued when his Astana team could only post the fifth quickest time 35 seconds in arrears.

The teams started in descending order of the teams classification, with the exception of Team Sky, which was promoted to final starter due to Froome’s place in the maillot jaune.

“It’s one thing not to lose any time to your rivals but it’s another to gain time on them”, Froome said.

However, with the clock not stopping until the first five riders crossed the finish line, the British-based team blew their advantage. I like to think so, but of course, I also have two years’ more experience.

“This next phase of the race the pressure’s certainly not on my shoulders to be making the race and to be having to try to take time back from anyone”.

Teams took the start with some riders patched up and others out injured. Especially as tomorrow is the first of three straight days of tough climbing in the Pyrenees.

“I was not feeling so good”, Nibali said. “It’s up to other teams to come and get the jersey off us if they can”.