In his first race in BMC Racing Team colours, Nicolas Roche has helped his team to victory in the opening stage team time-trial of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.1). They blitzed the 37.9-kilometre course in Orihuela, beating their nearest rivals by 21″.
Six riders from the eight-man BMC team including Roche crossed the line together in a time of 43:17 to take the win. Manuel Senni was first across the line so takes the first leader’s jersey and the Italian rider was followed by Michael Schar, Greg van Avermaet, Roche, Stefan Küng and Ben Hermans.
Senni was a late call-up to the race as he replaced Manuel Quinziato who was unwell in the days prior to the race.
The former World Team Time Trial champions were fourth last of the 25 teams to start and they finished in a time of 43:17, pushing Quick Step Floors who included Dan Martin amongst their line-up into second place. Astana Pro Team and Movistar were the next two teams to finish and they were unable to come close to BNC’s time.
The last team off was Team Sky with defending champion Wout Poels and Philip Deignan amongst their line-up and the British team looked like they were in a good position to topple BMC as they set the fastest time at the first checkpoint. However, they too were unable to beat BMC’s time and had to settle for second with Quick Step Floors taking third.
The race continues tomorrow with a 180.6-kilometre stage from Alicante to Denia which features five categorised climbs along the way including the Cat. 3 Alto de Montgo just six kilometres from the end.
Results
1 BMC Racing Team 0:43:15
2 Team Sky 0:00:24
3 Quick-Step Floors 0:00:50
4 Movistar Team 0:01:00
5 Astana Pro Team 0:01:15
6 Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:16
7 FDJ 0:01:32
8 Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:53
9 Cannondale-Drapac 0:02:00
10 ORICA-Scott 0:02:02
11 CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:02:17
12 Dimension Data 0:02:29
13 Direct Energie 0:02:59
14 AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:14
15 Gazprom-RusVelo 0:03:18
16 Cofidis, Solutions Crédits 0:03:19
17 Caja Rural – Seguros RGA 0:03:53
18 Euskadi Basque Country – Murias 0:03:47
19 Roompot – Nederlandse Loterij 0:04:22
20 W52-FC Porto-Porto Canal 0:04:29
21 Burgos-BH 0:03:49
22 Spain 0:05:16
23 Israel Cycling Academy 0:05:59
24 Team UKYO 0:06:16
25 Inteja Dominican Cycling Team 0:07:17
