Dauphiné stage 3: Sky wins TTT; Kwiatkowski back in yellow

Team Sky turned in a flawless performance Wednesday to win the Critérium du Dauphiné’s stage 3 team time trial and put Michal Kwiatkowski back into the GC lead.

Former TTT world champion BMC Racing was second, 38 seconds behind, with Lotto-Soudal rounding out the podium third at 52 seconds on a flat, 35-kilometer course from Pont-de-Vaux to Louhans-Châteaurenaud, France

After crashing in the finale of stage 2 Tuesday, Kwiatkowski started the day just two seconds behind all-rounder Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott).

“I’m so happy that I came away with no major issues after yesterday’s crash,” said Kwiatkowski. “It’s always a wonderful feeling to win together with the team, we had a perfect stage.”

However, Impey’s Australian outfit never posed a threat to the day’s leaderboard, finishing fourth, 56 seconds slower.

Kwiatkowski said his Sky team handled the technically difficult team time trial course with verve.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to win as a team. We rode a perfect stage, technically and tactically, on the entire course,” Kwiatkowski added. “All these 35 kilometers were really demanding with the changes in speed.”

“The prologue showed us that we are the strongest on paper, but it’s a different thing to be out there and perform as well, so I’m very happy to do it,” he added. Kwiatkowski won that first Dauphiné stage on Sunday, taking the race’s first yellow jersey.

On Thursday, the Dauphiné heads to the mountains for stage 4, which runs 181 kilometers to Lans-en-Vercors.

“It’s probably one of Team Sky’s best time trials ever,” Geraint Thomas (Sky) said. “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, that’s for sure.”