Ineos Grenadiers storm to stage win and overall lead with Hayter on Tour of Britain stage three team time trial

Ineos Grenadiers took stage three of the Tour of Britain in the team time trial, showing they had the best strength in depth in the race.

This sees Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) go into the overall lead as the race heads to the queen stage on day four.

Deceuninck - Quick-Step took second on the day with Jumbo-Visma rounding out the podium. 

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The team of the leader's jersey, Rally Cycling, finished quite a way down seeing Robin Carpenter losing the dark blue leader's jersey.

How it happened

The day started in the town of Llandeilo before a flattish 18.2km route, that finished outside the National Botanic Garden of Wales in the county of Carmarthenshire.

Team time trials are rarely seen on the pro calendar, but the Tour of Britain seems to be a safe place for the discipline with its second appearance in the last three editions of the race.

Cornish team, Saint Piran, were the first to get off the ramp and put in a respectable time of 22-54 but it didn’t last long as Ribble-Weldtite took over the lead with an exceptionally fast time of 21-31 on the stage they hoped they could potentially win.

However, the team of stage one winner, Wout van Aert, Jumbo-Visma set off and, even with five riders, managed a rapid time of 20-43. This was even with a late puncture for Pascal Eenkhoorn in the final few hundred metres.

Israel Start-Up Nation were the next to beat Ribble-Weldtite but unable to pass Jumbo-Visma with a 21-06. Even with a puncture, Jumbo-Visma’s time did push Deceuninck - Quick-Step all the way with the Belgian squad pipping them to the fastest time by three seconds, with a time of 20-40.

It wasn’t all ideal riding for the WorldTour teams as Qhubeka-NextHash finished over two minutes down on Deceuninck - Quick-Step after it looked like one of the riders went down in a crash. They were also beaten by a four-man team of Arkéa-Samsic.

Alpecin-Fenix slotted in 40 seconds behind the leading time of Deceuninck - Quick-Step knocking Ribble-Weldtite down to fifth.

But it was Ineos Grenadiers that came out on top with a superb ride to win the stage over Deceuninck - Quick-Step by 17 seconds, with a further 20 seconds back to Jumbo-Visma. 

This mean that Hayter went into the overall lead with team-mate, Rohan Dennis going into second, Van Aert sitting in third at 16 seconds, followed by Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) and team-mate Mikkel Honoré both at 23 seconds.

Stage four is the 'queen stage' of the race with a start in the beautiful seaside town of Aberaeron ,before riding 210km to the northern part of Wales with a summit finish up the Great Orme just outside of Llandudno.

With the general classification set up brilliantly but also it is a vital day for the mountains jersey with four categorised climbs, two category twos and two category ones including the summit finish.

Tour of Britain stage three, Llandeilo to National Botanic Garden of Wales (18.2km TTT)

1. Ineos Grenadiers (GBr), in 20-22
2. Deceuninck - Quick-Step (Bel), at 17s
3. Team Jumbo-Visma (Ned), at 20s
4. Israel Start-Up Nation (Isr), at 43s
5. Team DSM (Ger), at 57s
6. Alpecin-Fenix (Bel), at same time
7. Movistar Team (Esp), at 1-08
8. Ribble-Weldtite Pro Cycling, at 1-09
9. Trinity Racing (GBr), at 1-24
10. Team Arkéa-Samsic (Fra), at 1-28.

General classification after stage three

1. Ethan Hayter (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, in 9-40-21
2. Rohan Dennis (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers, at 6s
3. Wout van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma, at 16s
4. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 23s
5. Mikkel Honoré (Den) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at same time
6. Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma, at 38s
7. Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 49s
8. Dan Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation, at same time
9. Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Alpecin-Fenix, at 1-03
10. Xandro Meurisse (Bel) Alpecin-Fenix, at same time.