Paris-Nice stage 3: UAE Team Emirates take vital victory in team time trial

UAE Team Emirates took a surprise win in the Paris-Nice team time trial, crossing the line 15 seconds faster than closest challengers Jayco AlUla, with a time of 31:23.

EF Education-EasyPost were third, 21 seconds slower than UAE Team Emirates, whose dominant victory meant Brandon McNulty took the yellow jersey from Groupama-FDJ’s Laurence Pithie.

World time trial champion Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal Quick-Step outfit set the fastest time at the checkpoint atop the Côte de Jussy but ultimately finished 22 seconds down in fourth place as the weather swiftly deteriorated.

Fisher-Black was the first of several UAE riders over the line, moving up into second overall, and will wear the white jersey on the start line in Chalon-sur-Saône on Wednesday.

He towed new race leader McNulty and João Almeida behind him to form an all-UAE general classification podium. Evenepoel is the next of the pre-race favourites at eighth in the GC, with Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) in tenth.

Fifth-placed Ineos Grenadiers benefited from the better weather having set off early but ended equal on time with Soudal Quick-Step.

With only a few teams left out on the course, glorious sunshine turned to rain, which had a decisive effect on the day’s results.

Bora-Hansgrohe were even worse off than Soudal Quick-Step, with Primož Roglič’s team crossing the line in 11th place, 54 seconds down on the race leaders and losing critical time in the general classification.

Much talk before the race centred around Visma-Lease a Bike’s new Giro aero helmets, but even the unorthodox design couldn’t save them from the wet weather and they rolled over the line 36 seconds down in sixth place.

Fisher-Black said after the race: “I love this discipline and we knew we were a strong team coming into it, everyone is pretty good at time trialing and we knew we had a good shot at the win. We were fortunate to have pretty good weather as well. I’m not gonna lie and say it didn’t make a difference, we came just before the rain so for sure it was beneficial for us.

“It puts us in a very good position for the GC with four of us, we can look to fight the next few days. It’s definitely not about defending just yet, I think there’ll still be a lot of attacking racing to come. We’re in a really good position and I’m looking forward to the next few days.”

© Getty Images

Brandon McNulty in the leader's jersey at Paris-Nice

How the race unfolded

The race was initially low on drama as teams rolled down the ramp of the 26.9km course around Auxerre. Starting on the flat along a stretch of the Yonne river, the route featured two short climbs in its first half, with the time check coming at the top of the second climb, the Côte de Jussy. The riders then tackled a much faster, flatter second half of the stage, losing all the elevation gained before a slight hike uphill in the final kilometre.

This edition followed the revamped rules from last year, whereby the first rider over the line set the team’s time for the stage, but each rider got their own time. The change meant teams had to look after their GC contenders to avoid them losing time, and was a chance for different squads to test out different approaches to the TTT.

Several teams were forced to drop riders in the approach to the 14.1km checkpoint as the climb got the better of tired legs, while others like Ineos Grenadiers managed to cross with a majority of their seven-man squad.

Israel Premier-Tech were the first to start while Astana Qazaqstan, who set off third, logged the early marker to beat at 32:02.

Led by Harold Tejada up the final climb, they remained in the hot seat until UAE Team Emirates, who were tenth off the start line and the first of the main GC contenders, displaced them.

The Emirati squad were 14 seconds faster than Astana at the checkpoint and extended their lead to 39 seconds by the end. Having already won both WorldTour time trials they’ve competed in so far this year, Fisher-Black’s dogged effort at the end secured them a third win in three and leaves them well positioned for the remainder of the race.

Jayco AlUla put in a strong ride to come second, only logging a two-second deficit to UAE at the checkpoint, while Ineos Grenadiers were just over six seconds down at the top of the Côte before falling to fifth place over the second half of the race.

Owain Doull completed the podium for EF Education-EasyPost, putting in a real shift to tow Rigoberto Uran to the line, finishing 20 seconds down with the Colombian another couple of seconds after him.

Remco Evenepoel’s team had been heavily fancied at the start but after setting off fifth-last were caught out by the rain. They made an incredibly fast start, 17 seconds quicker than UAE at the time check and the first team to ride it in under 19 minutes at 18:55. Evenepoel had earmarked this stage and clearly meant business, but as the showers began they shipped time in the stage’s second half, overall losing 38 seconds to UAE Team Emirates from the 14.1km mark onwards.

Bora-Hansgrohe were another to speed through the early climbs as leader Roglic drove them at a brutal pace over the top of the Côte de Jussy. Only three riders were still in it at the timecheck, where they were just 3.9 seconds down on Soudal Quick-Step’s blistering pace.

But having already haemorrhaged riders they struggled noticeably in the wetter tail end of the race, slower going around the slick corners in the last kilometre and finished in 11th place.

Groupama-FDJ were the last team to race and were another ill-served by the wet weather. They crossed the line in 14th, a minute and 1 second down on the new race leaders in a disappointing result for French GC hope David Gaudu. Lidl-Trek’s Matthias Skjelmose was another to ship significant time on the stage, 1:13 down on UAE having again been caught in the rain.