Team Sky blast towards the finish off stage 9, with Nicolas Roche last man as Wouter Poels drives on the front before blowing and leaving the line-up fractured (Photo: Sirotti)
Nicolas Roche will undoubtedly blame himself for Team Sky missing out on stage victory at Tour de France team time trial today, but the squad perhaps wanted to win just a little too much.
Having been up on eventual stage winners BMC Racing by just one second halfway through the 28km test from Vannes to Plumelec, Team Sky were five seconds to the good on their main rivals as they began the final climb just over one kilometre from the finish.
By that stage, the team numbered just six riders having jettisoned three men out on the road.
And while Wouter Poels was clearly intent on emptying the tank on the front and helping the team all he could before he blew leaving the minimum five riders to cross the line together, his efforts had the opposite effect.
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As soon as the Dutchman hit the afterburners on the climb, the cohesion drained away from the team's formation, with some of the riders clearly on the rivet and small gaps beginning to appear between them.
Chris Froome could be seen on his radio communicating with management in the following car, perhaps urging them to ask Poels to ease up a little.
But when Poels pulled over after his big turn and went out the back, the couple of riders behind him kept the others at the pin of their collars.
And the five-strong group always looked in danger of splitting; as many teams had done before them.
In the end it was Roche who found the going toughest.
And undoubtedly having ridden his heart out in what is a blistering event, the team stalled to ensure he was not distanced, with one of his team mates gesturing to him to try to get back onto his wheel.
In the end, the five second advantage on BMC turned into a one second deficit by the finish line; with Team Sky arguably losing the stage because Poels rode a fraction too hard before he was dropped and put Roche into the red for the last couple of hundred metres.
However, given Team Sky's patchy performances in team time trials of late, to lose by just one second to world champions BMC was a great result.
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And Froome now leads the race going into the rest day tomorrow, after which the big mountains start.
Dan Martin's Cannondale-Garmin team came home in 12th place at 1:29.
It was a time loss that meant little to Martin as barring pegging back a huge amount of time in a breakaway his bid for a strong general classification placing is over.
He is now 31st overall, some 9:21 down on leader Froome.
Sam Bennett's Bora-Argon 18 squad, which like Team Sky also fractured in the push to the line, came home just one place and two seconds behind Martin and his colleagues.
Stage 9: Vannes - Plumelec TTT (28km)
1 BMC Racing 0:32:15
2 Team Sky 0:00:01
3 Movistar Team 0:00:04
4 Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:28
5 Astana Pro Team 0:00:35
6 IAM Cycling 0:00:38
7 Etixx-QuickStep 0:00:45
8 Lampre-Merida 0:00:48
9 Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:01:14
10 AG2R LA Mondiale 0:01:24
11 Trek Factory Racing 0:01:25
12 Team Cannondale-Gramin 0:01:29
13 Bora-Argon 18 0:01:31
14 FDJ 0:01:33
15 Lotto Soudal 0:01:36
16 Team Giant-Alpecin 0:01:37
17 Team Europcar 0:01:42
18 Bretagne-Seche Environnement 0:01:46
19 Team Katusha 0:01:53
20 MTN-Qhubeka 0:01:56
21 Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:02:32
22 Orica-GreenEdge 0:04:58
General Classification
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 31:34:12
2 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:12
3 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 0:00:27
4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:38
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:01:03
6 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Etixx - Quick-Step 0:01:18
7 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:50
8 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:52
9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:01:59
10 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Etixx - Quick-Step
11 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal 0:02:01
12 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:02:18
13 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:02:22
14 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:02:43
15 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:02:52
16 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing 0:02:56
17 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:30
18 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:03:52
19 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:04:17
20 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:04:32
31 Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:09:21
72 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:25:25
177 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 1:00:45
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