Team Ineos silenced by Jumbo-Visma's dominant Tour de France TTT
The eight riders of Team Ineos started first in the 27.6km team time trial and so spent two hours in the hot seat as they waited for their Tour de France rivals to race and try to beat their time of 29:17, hoping they had done enough to win one of the most prestigious races of the season.
And so when last-off team Jumbo-Visma beat them by 20 seconds, the disappointment was obvious as Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal, Gianni Moscon and the others left the podium area beyond the Brussels Atomium and rode towards their team bus.
The British team, then racing as Team Sky, finished second in 2018 and 2015 and third in 2013 and 2011 but have never won a Tour de France time trial in their 10-year history.
If Team Inoes had beaten Jumbo-Visma by ten seconds then Moscon could even have pulled on the race leader's yellow jersey.
That didn't happen but Team Inoes' glass was more than half full. It was a good day for their overall classification hopes. Thomas and Bernal gained chunks of time on most of their overall rivals, putting 58 into Richie Porte, 59 seconds into Romain Bardet and 21 seconds into Adam Yates and Jakob Fuglsang.
However after their two-hour wait in the hot seat, Team Ineos 'Performance First' philosophy took precedent above two minutes to share their thoughts and the Team Ineos bus left as quickly as possible. Even despite calls of 'Egan, Egan, Egan' from the Colombian crowd, desperate to see their national hero.
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