Many moons ago the American team was one of the strongest TTT outfits in the world, but these days expectations are far more modest. Add into the equation that they had envisaged practically riding one man short – Lawson Craddock's Tour having seemingly been turned into a s🍃urvival operation by a broken shoulder – so their sixth-plac꧟e finish came as something of a s🐷urprise.
The team clocked 39:21 on the undulating 35.5km Cholet course, leaving them 35 seconds off BMC and 24 off fifth-placed 🌸Team Sunweb. However, they beat sevent♋h-placed Bora-Hansgrohe by 15 seconds, with plenty of solid outfits below that.
The result moved team le♔ader Rigoberto Urán into 10th overall, with Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) and Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) the only general classification contenders above him.
"In the past we usually would lose one minute, sometimes one minute and a half, two minutes," admitted Taylor 🔴Phinney, one of the team's big engines.
"We worked really hard before this race. Everyone was committed. I wen🀅t pretty deep. To lose 35 seconds, considering what happened on the first stage, the time we gained on a couple guys, we're very happy with how today went. It's a small victory."
Urán spoke of the need to keep his feet on the ground and, as ever, to take🎐 t🔯hings 'day-by-day', but he cut an exuberant figure back at the team bus as he joked with the Colombian media.
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"We went better than we e🧸xpected," he noted, but he didn't go far without m🍰entioning one name: Craddock.
The American has become one of the stories of the opening stages of this race🔯, showing the warrior's spirit that has so often captured the imagination of the Tour de France audience over the years. He dragged himself to the end of stage 1 with blood running down his face and made it through stage 2 once his scapula had been confirmed a๊s broken. He has channeled the adversity into a force for good, for a velodrome in his native Houston that was damaged by Hurricane Harvey.
With Craddock barely able to put weight on his handlebars, EF-Drapac were pessimistic about what he would be able to contribute to the TTT. They thought about leaving him on the back to hang on for as long as possible, but then thought itও might be even trickier to keep having to open and close gaps.
What🐟 happened, no one saw coming. Craddock didn't just hold on, he took t🎃urns throughout and was only dropped inside the final three kilometres.
"When we recon'd the course, I didn't have a good feeling after that," Craddock said. "I was in quite a bit of pain after the recon, even during the last 10 kilometers out on course. We really dug🎉 deep into my shoulder before the start of the race, and that made the biggest difference today.
"It was still quite painful. I put 90 per cent of my weight on my right forearm, right shoulder. We'll need to work on that tonight now. I'm just really happy to be able to do somethin𒀰g for the team today a🥂nd hopefully take this as a good step moving forward."
The contribution certainly d🔥idn't go unnoticed by Urán, who now finds himself 20 seconds ahead of Team Sky's Chris Froome, the rider who beat him♔ to the top step of the podium 12 months ago.
"All the recognition is for my teammate Craddock, who did a remarkable time trial given the circumsta🌱nces," Urán said. "These are the things that, as a leader, you value highly. The guy who has a broken shou🥀lder but finishes, you have to be grateful for that."
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2🦂015 and 2023, latterl♐y as Deputy Editor.
