Etixx-QuickStep were all smiles on Sunday after claiming victory in the men’s team time trial at the Road World Championships in Qatar.
ADVERTISEMENTEtixx-QuickStep were all smiles on Sunday after claiming victory in the men’s team time trial at the Road World Championships in Qatar.
The Belgian outfit stopped the clock with a winning time of 42 minutes and 32 seconds.
They covered the 40km course at an average speed of 56.426km/h.
It was the team’s third World title in the discipline after they won the first two editions in 2012 and 2013.
The team was made up of Marcel Kittel, Bob Jungels, Yves Lampaert, Niki Terpstra, Julien Vermote and Tony Martin who celebrated a third TTT title with Etixx-Quick step before joining Katusha next season.
After a protest by the WorldTour teams with the UCI about travel costs, only 10 squads from the 18 WorldTour teams competed.
But defending champs BMC were present in Doha.
BMC were the pre-race favourites but were four seconds down at the first check point.
They did pull level with Etixx at the 27km mark but after switching to a risky four-rider strategy they started to lose time and eventually crossed over in second.
Orica-BikeExchange were third