BMC out-gunned last year's winners Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Orica-GreenEdge for the team time trial world title today in Ponferrada, Spain. The men in red and black clocked a time of 1:03:29 to knock Trek out of the Shimano themed hot seat and in doing so set a target that no one else could match.
"It's incredible, the team was nervous coming into this because a couple of years we were second by a few seconds," BMC's Tejay van Garderen explained.
"We knew we had a strong team coming in so it was just a matter of doing our thing and staying calm."
Orica and Omega Pharma went head-to-head last year with the latter getting the win by just 0.8 seconds. Orica again claimed the silver, this year 23 seconds down on BMC but 13 seconds up on two time winners Omega.
Sky were a further two seconds adrift of Omega-Pharma to miss out on a medal. They had set the fastest time through the second time check at 36km, but by this point were already down to four men after losing Geraint Thomas and Salvatore Puccio early on.
Dario Cataldo explained that both Geraint Thomas and Salvatore Puccio lost contact after just 12 kilometres into the 57.1-kilometre time trial around Ponferrada’s western edge. Cataldo himself then had to adopt the final position in the four-man train towards the end, leaving the work to Bradley Wiggins, Vasil Kiryienka and Kanstantsin Siutsou. With the time being taken on the fourth man, Cataldo had to finish.
Omega Pharma benefited from the work of three-time World Champion Tony Martin who drove the pace, but still couldn't match BMC. The Belgian team lost time between the second and third check points and then had to take the final kilometres cautiously as light rain started to fall on the slick Spanish roads.
"The course was good for us with good flat sections, a couple of climbs... A dynamic course that suited us," van Garderen added. "You had to be strong on all fronts to do this."
RESULTS
UCI team time trial world championship
1. BMC Racing 57.1km 1:03.29 hr
2. Orica-GreenEdge +31 sec
3. Omega-Pharma Quickstep +35 sec
4. Team Sky +37 sec
5. Tinkoff-Saxo +46 sec
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAZ9wfYueTI
