2018 Tour de France Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2018 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
By Clara Beard
As the best team time trial specialists in the world, BMC came, saw and conquered stage 3 in Cholet, boosting Greg Van Avermaet into the yellow jersey and teammate Tejay van Garderen into second place overall. BMC Racing won the 35.5 kilometre stage in a time of 38:46, besting Team Sky by four seconds. Quick-Step Floors finished third, seven seconds back.
"A team time trial is always something special when the whole team makes efforts for the same goal,” Van Avermaet said. “We are masters in it and I'm happy to be part of it. It was my main goal to win the yellow jersey in the first week. It was incredible when I held it for the first time two years ago and I'm really happy to hold it a second time. For a rider, it's really special. Thanks to my team-mates, I enjoy it very much. The first time you have it, you see how it is. It's really big. It's a real achievement. It's really important to start the Tour good, we have a good Tour so far. We have still a lot of stages to do. We want to win stage and put Richie on the podium in Paris. We still have a few more goals."
Team Sky’s performance saw GC contender Geraint Thomas slide up to third place, just three seconds away from the overall lead. BMC still has work to do to see that their GC hopeful Richie Porte, who lost 51 seconds after a crash on stage 1 (that also impacted defending champion Chris Froome (SKY), gets back in contention.
"We have strong riders, they took care of me so it was not so hard for me and it was great to see such a big crowd. It's a good result but it's far from over. You saw what happened in stage 1 with my crash. There is more time to take back of the other contenders," Porte said after the stage.
The first team to leave the start house was Michelton Scott, who set the benchmark early at 38:55, which was good enough for an eventual fourth place finish. Team Sunweb also had a noteworthy performance, finishing just two seconds behind the Australian team putting their GC contender Tom Dumoulin into a dangerous seventh place, just 11 seconds down in the overall classification.
Tomorrow is another day for the sprinters to make their mark. The 195 kilometre stage is flat, fast and has just one category 4 climb along the way. \n
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