Grenadiers power to Paris-Nice TTT victory

The INEOS Grenadiers unleashed in a superb team effort to secure victory in the Paris-Nice team time trial. 

Setting a winning time of 26 minutes and 40 seconds across the 23.5-kilometre course, the team executed their plan well to finish with Kevin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley across the line.

Josh Tarling played a pivotal role and delivered a huge final turn on the run to the finish in Pouilly-sur-Loire. Key efforts from Dorian Godon, Michal Kwiatkowski and Sam Watson helped ensure the team were also fastest through the intermediate split, laying the groundwork for eventual victory. Carlos Rodriguez also put in a battling ride following his crash at the conclusion of Sunday's opening stage. 

Victory by two and a half seconds over Lidl-Trek saw Vauquelin and Onley climb up the GC to second and third respectively, two and three seconds behind new race leader Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek).

Reaction

Kevin Vauquelin: "It’s a really big win with the team because the team has improved a lot in the TTs and we’ve worked a lot throughout the winter. With wins in Tirreno yesterday, and in Algarve, and now in Paris-Nice, I’m really proud of us and it’s really good. The plan was to go fast and in the finish, I know I’m good at the final kilometres, so I pushed full gas to make up every second, which was good because it was only two seconds!"

Oscar Onley: "Obviously the team time trial is an important factor in a lot of the big races this year so we’ve really put a big emphasis on it. Today shows all the work that the team, not just here but everyone in the team, has put towards this. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that no one sees so it’s really nice to be able to finish it off for them as well.

"We wanted to try and come over the final climb with four guys. In the end, there was the three of us and I was just hanging on on that downhill to the line. Everyone put in a really good shift right from the start. We had a bit of a scare in the recon this morning, we had a crash, so we found the limits this morning. It was nice to be able to bounce back from that as well.

"Paris-Nice is a different type of climbing race compared to some of the other races during the year. I don’t think it’s just on legs, especially with the parcours this year, there can be quite a few opportunities, and the weather plays a big factor in these stages, so it’s always better to have options up there with these harder days."