The Tour de France started today in Utrecht with a 13.8km time trial. Rohan Denis of BMC was fastest, beating pre-race favourites, Tony Martin, Fabian Cancellara and Tom Dumoulin.

In taking the first yellow jersey of the race, Dennis rode the fastest individual time trial ever at the Tour de France at an average speed of 55.446kmph. The previous record was held by Chris Boardman with 55.152km/h in Lille in 1994 on a 7.2km course. Dennis was the only rider to complete the course in less than fifteen minutes.

Afterwards Dennis said: “I’ll be amongst the yellow jersey holders, it’s amazing but it’s been stressful to wait for the outcome. I was shaking when my rivals were about to come one by one but I could judge with two to one kilometer to go. I did a trial before the race and I thought I had to ride in sixteen minutes but it was one less at the end. It was a bit of a shock. I never aim for a top 5 or to finish second or third but I’m always confident that I’d win and I wasn’t confident that I’d beat Tony Martin or Fabian Cancellara this time. But I expected myself to win. More than a surprise, I would say it’s been a relief. People said I was a dark horse but I had a chance to win.”

“The heat hasn’t been a problem for me. Growing up in Adelaide… everyone who comes for the Tour Down Under in January expects a hot week. Knowing that the conditions could be like that here today, we decided with my coach that after the Dauphiné I’d be training between 2 and 5pm in 35 to 40° temperatures to get adapted to the same conditions.”

1 AUS DENNIS Rohan BMC RACING TEAM 14min 56sec
2 GER MARTIN Tony ETIXX-QUICK STEP 15min 01sec + 00’ 05’’
3 SUI CANCELLARA Fabian TREK FACTORY RACING 15min 02sec + 00’ 06’’
4 NED DUMOULIN Tom TEAM GIANT-ALPECIN 15min 04sec + 00’ 08’’
5 NED VAN EMDEN Jos TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 15min 11sec + 00’ 15’’
6 ESP CASTROVIEJO NICOLAS Jonathan MOVISTAR TEAM 15min 19sec + 00’ 23’’
7 AUT BRÄNDLE Matthias IAM CYCLING 15min 19sec + 00’ 23’’
8 ITA MALORI Adriano MOVISTAR TEAM 15min 25sec + 00’ 29’’
9 NED KELDERMAN Wilco TEAM LOTTO NL – JUMBO 15min 26sec + 00’ 30’’
10 GBR CUMMINGS Stephen MTN-QHUBEKA 15min 28sec + 00’ 32’’


Summary – Stage 1 (Utrecht > Utrecht) – Tour de… by tourdefrance_en

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