LOUHANS-CHATEAURENAUD, France – Team Sky won the Criterium du Dauphine’s team time trial on Wednesday, bringing Michal Kwiatkowski back in the overall lead at the warmup race for the Tour de France.
Sky won the 21.75-mile stage in 36 minutes, 33.46 seconds, 37 seconds ahead of closest rival BMC. Lotto Soudal posted the third fastest time, 52 seconds behind Sky.
Sky rider Geraint Thomas said: “It was fluid and fast. It’s probably one of Team Sky’s best time trials ever. Now we have four hard stages ahead of us and we’ll see how it goes. But we’ll defend the jersey. We’ve got several cards to play but it’ll still be difficult to win.”
Kwiatkowski, who relinquished the leader’s jersey on Tuesday after he crashed on a roundabout toward the end of Stage 2, is back in the lead with a three-second advantage over teammate Gianni Moscon. Another Sky rider, Jonathan Castroviejo, is in third place, nine seconds off the pace.
Kwiatkowski opened a gap on his main rivals, with Adam Yates now trailing more than one minute back and Romain Bardet 1:52 off the pace ahead of four mountain stages.
“I’m so happy that I got no major issue after the crash yesterday,” said Kwiatkowski, who won Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this season. “If I could have picked up one stage win in the Dauphine, I’d like it to be the TTT. It’s a wonderful feeling to win as a team. We rode a perfect stage, technically and tactically, on the entire course.”
Durango’s Sepp Kuss, 23, rode for Team LottoNL-Jumbo, which placed ninth in the team time trial Wednesday. The squad was 1:32 off Sky’s winning time. Twenty-two teams are competing in the World Tour event.
Kuss moved up two spots to 73rd in the general classification standings with four mountainous climbing stages remaining. The upcoming stages are all more than 100 kilometers, with the big 121-mile stage to come Thursday.
Kuss is 19th in the best young rider standings.
The Durango Herald contributed to this report.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
