In Nice the team time trial revolutionises the classification, Simon Gerrans takes yellow with Orica-GreenEDGE

Added: tuesday 02 July 2013 at 19:26:00

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The 4th stage of the Tour de France 2013 took place today in the streets of Nice as a team time trial.

Not really surprisingly this timed effort led to quite some changes in the general classification since the gaps were quite small (mainly at 1 second). The top teams however rode quite similar times (the 4 first within 10 seconds) in this time trial and this stage will thus not "falsify" the final general classification on the Champs-Elysées in 17 days.
The summary of the team time trial of the Tour de France 2013 in Nice (4th stage)
After a flight from Corsica to get back to the continent, the riders arrived in Nice last night while the staff of the teams and all other followers were lucky to test the quite original timings of Corsica Ferries which wakes up its passengers at 3.25AM to get off the boat around 6.00AM ...

When the teams started to come by one by one at the finish line in Nice, quite rapidly the Omega Pharma-QuickStep team, world champion of this discipline, set a reference time of 25'57" for the 25 kilometers of the almost full loop circuit in Nice.

Team Sky, of the big favourite for the race's overall win, Chris Froome, then set a time of 25'58", 3 seconds more than the Belgian team. The team thus doesn't lose much time to keep the target to take away the yellow jersey on the Champs-Elysées in Paris on the 21st of July.

The Orica-GreenEDGE team however offers itself the honour of a second victory in two days, after Simon Gerrans sprint win in the 3rd stage in Calvi yesterday (see photos), since 6 of the 9 riders of the Australian team registered a time which was 1 second under the time of the Omega Pharma-QuickStep team.
The team time trial classification in Nice
Here's the top 10 of this team time trial:

1/ Orica-GreenEDGE - 25'56"
2/ Omega Pharma-QuickStep - +0'01"
3/ Team Sky - +0'03"
4/ Team Saxo-Tinkoff - +0'09"
5/ Lotto-Belisol - +0'17"
6/ Garmin-Sharp
7/ Movistar Team - +0'20"
8/ Lampre-Merida - +0'25"
9/ BMC Racing Team - +0'26"
10/ Katusha - +0'28"
The general classification after the 4th stage of the Tour de France 2013
After this 4th stage which was run as a team time trial we find the riders of the best teams of this stage in the top of the general classification : 3 men of Orica-GreenEDGE precede 2 riders of Omega Pharma-QuickStep, 3 riders of Sky and 2 riders of Saxo-Tinkoff in the new top 10 where Jan Bakelants (Radioshack-Leopard) loses his yellow jersey after 2 days to Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE):

1/ Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 12h47'24"
2/ Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEDGE)
3/ Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE)
4/ Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'01"
5/ Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
6/ Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) - +0'03"
7/ Chris Froome (Team Sky)
8/ Richie Porte (Team Sky)
9/ Nicolas Roche (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - +0'09"
10/ Roman Kreuziger (Team Saxo-Tinkoff)
The photos of the team time trial of the Tour de France 2013 in Nice
Check out the photos of this stage by clicking on the link below to go to the corresponding photo section:

>> photos of the team time trial of the Tour de France 2013 in Nice
by Thomas Vergouwen
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Comments

Currently 2 comments!

bonne route a toute l'équipe de france des courreurs ciclistes ainssi qu'a la caravane du tours de france 2013.....avec la fraicheur de cet après-midi...je pense que nos courreurs aurons moins chauds qu'hier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!laurent,sarrians,le:03.07.2013.a:14h.06.05.
| bauso.laurent. | wednesday 03 July 2013 at 14:07:00
Je souhaite moins de chute sur le tour.J attend la montagne pour voir les favoris.
| Souleymane ILBOUDO | friday 05 July 2013 at 11:39:28