As had been predicted by many, BMC Racing Team won the team time trial from Vannes to Plumelec. However, their margin of victory was what was the big surprise as they only beat Team Sky by one second in the 28-kilometre stage.
Orica-GreenEdge started first due to being last in the team classification. However, with just six riders left in the race (due to Simon Gerrans, Michael Albasini and Daryl Impey having crashed out), the Australian team were always going to struggle in a discipline that they are normally so strong at.
And the Australian team did struggle, which was evident when Bretagne-Séché Environnement who aren’t specialists beat them by more than three minutes. IAM Cycling and Vincenzo Nibali’s Astana would later set the best times. However, Astana lost the lead by 31 seconds to Movistar.
However, Movistar’s time would soon be beaten by BMC Racing. The World Team Time Trial champions with Tejay van Garderen, Rohan Dennis, Damiano Caruso, Greg van Avermaet and Samuel Sanchez being the strongest became the first team to average over 52 kmph to move into the lead.
It was always going to be close as to whether they could hold on to win though, as Team Sky were flying. They were equal with BMC at the first check point and leading by one second at the second check point. However, they lost by just one second. Chris Froome has retained the overall lead with an advantage of 12 seconds over Tejay van Garderen before they hit the Pyrenees in two days.
Summary – Stage 9 (Vannes > Plumelec) – Tour de… by tourdefrance_en
