Team BMC wins ninth stage of Tour de France

As expected, BMC beat Sky by one second to win the 28 km team time trial ninth stage of the Tour de France on Sunday but Britain's Chris Froome kept the leading yellow jersey.

Sky Team on the nineth stage of the Tour de France JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

First team to ride was Australia's Orica, and the last to go was Britain’s Sky team led by yellow jersey Chris Froome.

This stage was raced on a short but rather tricky route between Vannes and Plumelec in Brittany.

Britain’s Sky team had a five second advantage at the foot of the final 1.7km, 6.2 percent climb to the finish line. Each team left one after the other, only five minutes apart.

"One second, that's incredible" said Froome. "The aim was to win, winning the stage would have been amazing and we did our best. But it's still good. If I'd been told at the beginning of the Tour that I'd be wearing the yellow jersey after the first week, I wouldn't have believed it, especially after last year."

Nairo Quintana's Movistar were third at 4sec, Alberto Contador's Tinkoff-Saxo fourth at 28sec with reigning champion Vincenzo Nibali's Astana fifth at 35sec.

Despite missing out on the stage win, it was another successful day for Froome, who retained the lead of the overall ranking with an advantage of 12 seconds over Tejay Van Garderen before the Pyrenees.

However, BMC's Van Garderen was delighted with the stage win. "It's an incredible feeling, so far the team in the first week has been incredible, we've passed every test with flying colours," said the 26-year-old, who was fifth overall in 2012 and last year.