McNulty in yellow as UAE Team Emirates dominate team time trial
March 5 th 2024 - 16:53
UAE Team Emirates staged a perfectly cohesive effort around Auxerre on Tuesday to win the 26.9 team time trial third stage of Paris-Nice and hand the leader’s jersey to Brandon McNulty. The American, one of the four riders to cross the line in the front for UAE, leads his team-mates Finn Fisherblack, Joao Almeida and Jay Vine overall, with Australia’s Michael Matthews 5th, 15 seconds behind. At an average speed of 51.4 kph, UAE Team Emirates were the most consistent outfit in 31 minutes and 23 seconds, ahead of specialist teams Jayco AlUla, 15 seconds behind, and EF-Easypost 20 seconds adrift. The rain which fell at the very end of the day, might have affected the performances of the later teams as Soudal-Quick Step, fastest at the intermediate mark, faltered in the finale.
Astana set the bar high
The first team on the road, starting from Auxerre’s Abbé Deschamps stadium, was Israel Premier Tech and they set the first mark of the day at 33:03, their leader Jakob Fuglsang crossing the line on his own. But the first outfit to set the bar reasonably high were Astana, who staged a cohesive team effort to lead Alexey Lutsenko over the line in 32:02, a minute off the opening time. Most teams chose to drop riders along the way and lead a designated leader to the line.
UAE Team Emirates set the tone
The Kazakh team's time at the 14.1-km intermediate mark was successively improved by UAE Team Emirates and Jayco AlUla, who found themselves with only four riders halfway through. UAE Team Emirates, by contrast, still had five men under the red flame and their combined effort led by Finn Fisherblack ahead of Brandon McNulty and Joao Almeida gave them a fastest time of 31:23 at an average speed of 51.4 kph. Their intermediate fastest time held until Soudal-Quick Step came into action and the team of Remco Evenepoel was leading by 17 seconds at the 14.1-km mark.
Here comes the rain
Rain started to pour as 15 teams had completed the course and it apparently affected the Belgian outfit, as they finally made it to the finish 21 seconds slower than UAE, in 4th place. Bora-Hansgrohe also looked in contention until the intermediate time but had only Primoz Roglic, Matteo Sobrero and Aleksandr Vlasov left and finally lost 57 seconds on the best mark in 10th place. Visma-Lease a Bike, sporting their controversial new helmet, did not fare much better, having to settle for 6th place, 38 seconds adrift. UAE Team Emirates were not to be toppled and their collective effort handed the yellow and white jersey to Brandon McNulty ahead of an intriguing hilly 4th stage to Mont Brouilly.
