The 3rd stage of the Criterium du Dauphine would be a tough 24.5km team trial trial test to Montagny. The current world champions in TTT discipline, BMC Racing, would ride away with the victory while Astana finished in 2nd and Movistar in 3rd place.
Team BMC Racing was the 3rd team off today and everybody knew the American team would set a high early benchmark. They would cross the line in a time of 29’58”, a time that would not be beaten by any of the teams that followed after them.
MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung would relish the rare opportunity to test themselves against the big World Tour teams in the team trial discipline. Our African team would go through the intermediate time check in what would only be the 18th fastest time on the day but the boys rode strongly over the 2nd half of the stage to eventually finish in 15th place.
Averaging 47.2km/h for the full length of the course meant our African team came in at 31’05” and 1’07” down on the winning time. As there were no King of the Mountains points up for grabs during the stage, Daniel Teklehaimanot would retain the polka dot jersey going into tomorrow’s next road stage.
Douglas Ryder – Team Principal