Great Britain got off to a strong start at the 2017 World Road Cycling Championships as Chris Froome, Owain Doull and Geraint Thomas helped Team Sky to team time trial bronze in Bergen, Norway.
Fastest through the opening split, the team was never outside the top three of the time checks and completed the course in 48 minutes and 12 seconds to equal Team Sky’s previous best result in the event from Florence 2013.
However they had to dig deep when Thomas and Doull dropped off 11km from the finish after their earlier efforts took their toll, leaving Froome – who recently completed the Tour de France-Vuelta a Espana double – to complete the course alongside teammates Vasil Kiryienka, Michal Kwiatkowski and Gianni Moscon.
Team Sunweb claimed victory, coming home 22 seconds ahead of Team Sky with BMC Racing taking the silver, eight seconds behind the victors, while another British rider, Alex Dowsett, was sixth with his Movistar team.
Team Sky sport director Brett Lancaster said: “Like we said from the start it was never going to be easy. Teams have always stepped up a lot in this event.
“The guys did their best effort and at the first split they were up by a second. We waited a bit on the climb as we knew ideally we needed five guys for the end, but the guys did a super job to bring it home.
“Third is a bit of a consolation prize. Sunweb are a really well-drilled team and hat’s off to BMC who were great. It’s the first time Quick-Step have been out of the medals since the race began so it just shows how every team has stepped up.”
Team Sunweb also took victory in the earlier women’s race with sole British rider Hannah Barnes coming home fourth with her CANYON//SRAM Racing team.
She will race again on Tuesday in the individual time trial alongside Elinor Barker while Froome will also be looking to continue his incredible season in the men’s time trial on Wednesday, with Steve Cummings also set to race.
Sportsbeat 2017