23 September, 2016, Sittard-Geleen (NED)
BMC Racing Team dominated the Eneco Tour stage 5 team time trial by smashing the 20.9km course to cross the line with a six second margin.
As two-time UCI World Champions in the discipline, BMC Racing Team started the stage as the favorites and put in a performance that sees Rohan Dennis take back the overall lead with two stage remaining.
The time to beat changed throughout the day and out on the course BMC Racing Team, the third-to-last team to roll down the start ramp, was looking to better 23’17”, the time set by Etixx-QuickStep.
In a brilliant show of strength and teamwork BMC Racing Team crossed the line with all eight riders and clocked 23’11” which was more than enough to claim the stage win and reshuffle the General Classification.
Dennis now leads the race by 16 seconds over teammate Taylor Phinney, and 24 seconds over Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep). Manuel Quinziato and Greg Van Avermaet sit in seventh and eighth respectively to make it four riders in the top ten for BMC Racing Team.
The team time trial win was also enough to put BMC Racing Team in first position on the team classification, 23 seconds in front of Team LottoNL-Jumbo.
Quotes of the Day
Rohan Dennis:
“We finished with 8 riders and we showed that there is a reason why we are the number one team in the world when it comes to the TTT. We weren’t too stressed about performing. It was more about how much time we would take out of Sagan and Tinkoff. I am pretty satisfied with how we did. It wasn’t perfect today. We still have some stuff to work on and you never win easily so everyone in the team suffered a bit but we worked really well together. I would have been happy to finish the TTT with an advantage of anything over 20 seconds and I was aiming personally for around 30 to 40 so to get 34 seconds in the end and bring me to a 27 second advantage in the GC was good. Although it is by no means a given that we will take the win, it will make it a bit easier.”
“I don’t race in Belgium or Holland that often so I have to look to riders like Greg Van Avermaet, Manuel Quinziato and Daniel Oss for direction and the best thing to do at certain stages at the race. We have Taylor Phinney, Van Avermaet, Quinziato and myself in the top ten so we have a lot of cards to play in that sense and if one of us wins that’s great. If that means the team wins but I lose it doesn’t matter if it is still BMC on the podium.”
Greg Van Avermaet:
“It was a great feeling to win with the team. We are World Champions in this discipline so we always have to defend this title every time and we are pretty happy that we did it. We have such a strong team and all eight riders put a real effort into it and that’s what makes us the best team on the day.”
Fabio Baldato, Sports Director:
“I’m really proud of the guys’ performance today. We knew that they were strong and had trained well for the team time trial, but to win by that margin is a really good result. We wanted to put in valuable time over Peter Sagan and Tinkoff which we did, and we also put Rohan Dennis back in the lead and really strengthened our position in the General Classification. A result like that gives us confidence ahead of the UCI World Championships and we’ll work hard to refine our team time trial even more. Now we need to focus on the GC and put all of our energy into defending our lead in the next two days.”
Race Profile
Eneco Tour (2.UWT)
Stage 5 TTT (20.9km)
Top 3: 1. BMC Racing Team, 2. Etixx-QuickStep, 3. Team LottoNL-Jumbo
BMC Racing Team Top 3 on GC: 1. Rohan Dennis, 2. Taylor Phinney, 7. Manuel Quinziato
