BMC Racing wins team time trial at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

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BMC Racing Team won the team time trial on stage 3 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana but the day’s real winner might yet prove to be Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). The Spaniard retains the overall lead after the race organisation decreed that the day’s stage would not count towards the general classification due to the inclement weather conditions in Calpe.

Having already stolen a march on most of his GC rivals by attacking to win stage 2, Valverde is now left in a commanding position ahead of Saturday’s pivotal mountain stage, with only Astana duo Luis Leon Sanchez and Jakob Fuglsang within six seconds of him on the overall standings.

Heavy rain and driving wind buffeted the time trial course along the Costa Blanca on Friday morning, leaving pools of standing water at some points on the parcours. Several teams voiced concerns and took to social media about the wisdom of squads riding in tight formation on time trial bikes in such conditions. Following consultation with the teams, the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana organisers and the UCI commissaires reached a compromise whereby the stage would still go ahead but the day’s result would not have any bearing on the general classification.

“Given how the weather was this morning, I think it was the right decision,” Valverde said after his Movistar team had safely negotiated the course without troubling BMC’s winning time.

“Of course, it changed in the afternoon once we started racing, but the second part of the course was still wet and a little bit dangerous. The decision had already been taken so we had to respect it.”

It was a decision always likely to raise debate – if the conditions mean a stage is too dangerous to be considered part of the general classification, then should the stage take place at all? The waters were muddied still further by the improvement in conditions as the afternoon progressed. By the time the later starters set out, the roads in the first half of the course had begun to dry off.

The decision was applauded by riders including Sep Vanmarcke (Education First-Drapac), who tweeted his support for the solution engineered by the commissaires and organisation. “This way, every team could decide if they wanted to take the risks for a good result, or keep it safe,” he wrote. “We rode in wet conditions, so we chose the last option.”

The debate was academic to BMC, who reiterated their team time trialling pedigree by scorching around the course at an average speed of 51kph and win the stage. They finished some 1:08 ahead of AG2R-La Mondiale and 1:12 up on Astana, and, with Stefan Küng and Brent Bookwalter among those driving the pace; they were full value for their win.

“It was a bit hard to make a good decision because it was raining a lot in the morning, but when it dried up we were able to keep it safe and go for victory,” Greg Van Avermaet said.

The race

Roadworks in the hinterland of Calpe had already seen the stage distance reduced to 23 kilometres from the originally planned 30.5km, and some teams treated the stage as something akin to a rest day, opting to soft-pedal around the course in leg warmers and on regular road bikes.

The early starters were the worst affected by the rain, but as the conditions improved and roads dried out, more teams began to compete for the stage honours. Understandably, local squads such as Team Euskadi and Polartec were keen to put on a show regardless of the status of the stage.

Nippo-Vini Fantini, Gazprom-Rusvelo and CCC-Sprandi Polkowice all opted to use their time trial machine, and went to be the early pace-setters, but once the BMC squad rolled down the start ramp – aboard their time trial bikes, with nary a legwarmer in sight – it was clear that they would be the team to beat.

Powered by Küng, Bookwalter, Michael Schar and Van Avermaet, BMC scorched around the course in 27:25, some 1:12 quicker than AG2R-La Mondiale’s provisional best mark. The French squad would finish the day in third on the stage.

Van Avermaet explained afterwards that the neutralisation of the stage from a GC perspective had not made one jot of difference to the BMC approach.

“No, not for us. We prepared the time trial as good as possible and we came here with the aim of winning the team time trial and going for victory,” he said.

“In the end, we’re not here for GC, we’re here for stage wins so we’re really happy. It was really technical, it wasn’t all about power it was also about technique. In the team we have a lot of experience, so it helped a lot to keep everyone together. It was really nice for us to get the win today.”

Astana, featuring Luis Leon Sanchez and Jakob Fuglsang, were the best of the late starters. The Kazakhstani squad caught a soft-pedalling Team Sky in the finishing straight and placed second on the stage, 1:01 down on BMC.

Valverde and his Movistar squad were the final starters, and they took no risks on the road to Calpe, charting a careful course around each of the corners as they came home in 29:49.

“We tried to do it fairly well ourselves even though the time didn’t count,” Valverde said. “I think we did a decent time. We weren’t fighting for the general but we gave it a good go and we did our job.”

The veteran carries a lead of 4 seconds over Luis Leon Sanchez, 6 over Fuglsang and 29 over Wout Poels (Team Sky) and everybody else into Saturday’s mountainous leg to Concentaina, where the organisers will hope a light covering of snow will soon melt and so not have a further impact on the decisive weekend stages.

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