INEOS beat new race leader Ayuso, strong Hoole and Visma | Lease a Bike with Vingegaard in Paris–Nice TTT

After two sprint opportunities, Tuesday finally brought some real tension to the general classification with the traditional team time trial. Just like last year, the times of the individual riders counted, while the clock was also taken on the first rider across the line. That made it a useful dress rehearsal for the opening team time trial of this year’s Tour de France in Barcelona, which will use the same format.

Because that discipline will also appear in the upcoming Tour, this test mattered even more than usual to a number of riders. Victor Campenaerts of Visma | Lease a Bike had already pointed that out beforehand to Sporza. “We have several riders here who will also ride the Tour, so this is very good preparation. Tomorrow we’ll do everything we can to win the team time trial,” said the Belgian.

The 23.5-kilometre team time trial, which was just slightly longer than the one coming up in Barcelona, began at 15:10 with Picnic PostNL. There was never much expectation that the Dutch team would be in the mix for victory, so the focus was mainly on the later starters among the favourites.

That wait did not last too long, with UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Visma | Lease a Bike rolling down the start ramp as the fifth and seventh teams. UAE, who had already lost Pavel Sivakov before the first intermediate point, posted the fastest split at that stage, but all eyes were on the yellow-and-black train of Visma | Lease a Bike to see what that time was really worth.

The Dutch squad did go quickest at the checkpoint, but by only four seconds. In the final kilometres, the UAE effort turned into more of a two-man time trial, with only Brandon McNulty and Marc Soler left. At the finish, the Emirati team gave away 22 seconds to the time of Visma | Lease a Bike, who still managed to bring Davide Piganzoli to the line with their main engines.

Then it was a matter of waiting for Movistar’s passage. The Spanish team conceded just four seconds at the intermediate point and were clearly producing a strong ride. The men led by Iván Romeo did not quite match the benchmark of Visma | Lease a Bike, but they still slotted in ahead of UAE. At the same time, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale produced a surprise best time at the checkpoint.

The French squad appeared to have started a little too fast, however, because in the last four kilometres only Daan Hoole remained. The powerful Dutch national time trial champion was having one of those exceptional days and, riding alone, he managed to defend the advantage over Visma | Lease a Bike all the way to the line. With that, attention quickly shifted to the final wave of major contenders, beginning with Lidl-Trek.

Ayuso’s team was flying and posted the quickest intermediate split, two seconds faster than the previous best, after which attention turned to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and INEOS Grenadiers. The German squad was already ten seconds down at the checkpoint on Ayuso and company, who then went on to set the fastest finish time. Ayuso crossed the line thirteen seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard in the individual classification of the day.

But not long after Lidl-Trek had taken over the lead, INEOS Grenadiers produced a huge ride of their own. The British team was no fewer than thirteen seconds quicker than Lidl-Trek at the intermediate point, although they had already seen co-leader Carlos Rodríguez drop away early. Meanwhile, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe could not get near the American team’s time.

A superb Joshua Tarling was still there for INEOS Grenadiers on the climb and delivered his leaders perfectly for the final effort. That finishing kick came exactly as planned. Kévin Vauquelin was the first British rider across the line and steered INEOS to the stage win by two seconds. Because of the bonus seconds Ayuso had already taken earlier in the race, however, it is not Vauquelin but the Spaniard who takes over the yellow jersey from Luke Lamperti, who was dropped early in EF Education-EasyPost’s ride.