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Tour de France: Greg Van Avermaet leads after BMC wins team time trial; American Tejay van Garderen is second overall

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Chris Froome’s Team Sky came up four seconds short of winning the team time trial in the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday, as Greg Van Avermaet of victorious BMC claimed the yellow jersey.

BMC, led by Australian hope Richie Porte, clocked 38 minutes, 46 seconds over the 35.5-kilometer (22-mile) route that began and ended in Cholet near the Atlantic coast.

Sky finished second and Quick-Step Floors came third, seven seconds behind. World champion Sunweb featuring Tom Dumoulin finished fifth, 11 seconds back.

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Peter Sagan, who led the tour after winning Stage 2, was dropped by his Bora Hansgrohe teammates and fell to 80th overall, three minutes behind.

Belgium's Greg Van Avermaet, wearing the yellow jersey, waves from the podium on Monday.
(Marco Bertorello / AFP/Getty Images )

Van Avermaet, a Belgian who excels at single-day classics, isn’t a threat for the overall title of the 21-stage race, but he could keep the lead through the cobblestoned Stage 9 ending in Roubaix.

Defending Tour champion Froome was left 55 seconds behind in the overall standings with another week of nervy rolling stages before hitting the Alps.

“It’s a good time,” said Froome, who dropped 51 seconds following a crash in Stage 1. “There are a lot of other good teams. As I’ve said from the start, the legs are good. It was a good test for us and the team. I’m very happy with the other riders.”

Froome is aiming to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain as the only riders to win the Tour five times.

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Van Avermaet earned the yellow jersey by leading BMC over the line, just ahead of American teammate Tejay van Garderen, who moved up to second overall, with the same time as Van Avermaet.

Geraint Thomas of Sky was third overall, three seconds behind.

Among the overall favorites, Dumoulin was seventh (11 seconds behind); last year’s runner-up, Rigoberto Uran, was 10th (:35); Porte was 14th (:51); Movistar teammates Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa were 17th (:53); Froome was 18th (:55), Adam Yates was 20th (1:00); and 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali was 22nd (1:06).

The Tour heads into the cycling hotbed of Brittany on Tuesday for Stage 4, a mostly flat 195-kilometer (121-mile) leg from La Baule to Sarzeau that starts and ends on the Atlantic coast.

The only individual time trial of the race comes in the penultimate stage, over a 31-kilometer (19-mile) route from Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle to Espelette in the Basque country. The race ends in Paris after more than 2,000 miles.

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