BMC Racing Team beats Team Sky by one second

Orica-GreenEdge started first as they were last in the teams' classification. Reduced to a six-man squad after the abandons of Simon Gerrans, Daryl Impey and Michael Albasini due to crashes, the previous winners of the team time trial of the Tour de France in Nice in 2013 obviously weren't motivated and cruised at 45km/h with the only intention to complete the race within the time cut. Second team on the road, local favourites Bretagne-Séché Environnement who aren't specialists in this exercise beat the Australians by more than three minutes!

Excellent finish by Movistar

The eighth team in action, IAM Cycling, was first to set an interesting time at the finish in Plumelec at an average speed of 51.08km/h. Astana was the first team to beat the Swiss outfit, by only three seconds, as Vincenzo Nibali had put his team-mates in trouble on several occasions. Jakob Fuglsang, Tanel Kangert, Michele Scarponi and Lieuwe Westra accompanied the defending champion of the Tour de France till the end. Astana lost the lead to Movistar by 31 seconds, so Nairo Quintana overtook Nibali in the overall ranking. He also passed Warren Barguil and therefore will wear the white jersey in the first Pyrenean stage as Peter Sagan remains in the lead of the points classification. Movistar's average speed was 51.98km/h. They used their time trial specialists first (Alex Dowsett, Adriano Malori) and finished with their climbers in the Cadoudal hill.

BMC Racing Team at 52.09km/h

Team time trial world champions BMC Racing Team was the first squad to clock in more than 52km/h average with Tejay van Garderen, Rohan Dennis, Damiano Caruso, Greg van Avermaet and Samuel Sanchez. Wout Poels, Richie Porte, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Nicolas Roche finished the job for Team Sky but missed out on the victory by one second after being equal with BMC at the first check point and leading by one second at the second check point. Prior to the mountain stages, Froome leads the overall ranking with 12 seconds over Van Garderen while Alberto Contador is at 1.03, Quintana at 1.59 and Nibali at 2.22.