Tour de France Stage 9: BMC win team time trial, Chris Froome keeps overall lead

BMC Racing have won the Stage 9 team time trial in the Tour de France, with Tejay van Garderen rising to second overall after today's 28km stage from Vannes to Plumelec.

They completed a tough course, with a climb to the finish, in a time of 32 minutes 15 seconds, just 1 second ahead of Team Sky and race leader Chris Froome, and with Movistar 3 seconds further back in third place/

Froome and van Garderen - 12 seconds behind the Team Sky rider on GC - come away from today's stage having taken more time out of their main rivals for the overall.

Tinkoff-Saxo's Alberto Contador, seeking to be the first man to do the Tour and Giro double since Marco Pantani in 1998, is 1 minute 3 seconds off the race lead, while defending champion Vincenzo Nibali of Astana is in 13th place, 2 minutes 22 seconds down on Froome.

Tejay van Garderen of BMC Racing, now second overall

It's an incredible feeling to win this as a team. During the first week, we've passed all the tests. It's all about momentum and we've having a great time now. First we'll have to get to the Pyrenees. That will be the test. In the Pyrenees we'll see who is fit enough to win the Tour and in the Alps, we'll see who has the resources to win.

In terms of physical condition, as we already saw at the Dauphiné, I'm pretty close to Froome but we'll only know in the third week who can do what. The Tour is a marathon. We aren't close to the end.

I don't know if I should be included in a list called ‘the Big Five’. The ‘Fab 4’ is an irritating tag but those guys have won Grand Tours and I've only had good places in those races, so I understand that media talk less about me but it doesn't mean that I'm intimidated or that I'm not going to fight.

Race leader Chris Froome of Team Sky

We would have loved to win today's stage but we can't be disappointed by our performance. I expected something similar from Team Sky and BMC. With a difference of point six of a second, we can't know where we've lost and what have we missed.

At the end everyone has seen that Nicolas Roche was struggling a bit but this is the nature of team time trial. He has given so much before! BMC did better than us and that's it. The first phase has gone better than any of us in the team could have imagined. I haven't lost anything and I even gained time during the first week. It puts us in a fantastic position.

The pressure is certainly not on my shoulders. It's up to my rivals to make it up. My tactic can be more defensive than I expected. I didn't expect Vincenzo Nibali to have lost so much time by now. To be totally honest, before the Tour I thought he'd be the one of my rivals who would have gained the biggest time in the first week.