PORTE BACK ON TRACK

AUSTRALIA’S Richie Porte has roared back to life at the Tour de France after BMC flexed its team time-trial muscle in Stage 3 around Cholet.

Porte and his teammates flew around the 35.5km circuit at an average speed of 52km/h to record an unbeatable time of 38min 46sec.

Team Sky was four seconds back in second place, while Quick-Step Floors pipped Mitchelton-Scott for third at seven seconds off the pace.

BMC’s powerful performance wiped Porte’s unlucky Stage 1 setback off the map.

The Australian contender had gone into Monday’s race against the clock alongside Chris Froome and Adam Yates at 51 seconds down on every other title rival, including Rigoberto Uran, Romain Bardet, Vincenzo Nibali and Mikel Landa.

But by the time the sun had set on day three, only Dumoulin and Uran had survived Porte’s spectacular counter-strike.

BMC’s scorching performance, in which they hit a max speed of 90km/h, catapulted Porte to 14th on general classification. He also leads Froome by four seconds.

“After what happened on the first stage, throwing 51 seconds away just from a silly little crash, today to take back time ... on some of the other GC guys is great,” Porte said.

“The guys today were really impressive. It’s hard to pinpoint one, but when you have guys like Stefan Kung it makes it a little easier.

“Today was not really my thing. It was more up to the big guys, so I did shorter turns and got out of the way.”

The win put Porte’s teammate Greg Van Avermaet into the yellow jersey.

Team Sky set the early pace after nudging MitcheltonScott off the podium’s top step, but was quickly topped by BMC.

French hope Romain Bardet again suffered a timetrial implosion, with his AG2R-La Mondiale squad shipping 1min 15sec, while Bahrain-Merida’s performance (+1min 6sec) also hurt Nibali.

IT WAS MORE UP TO THE BIG GUYS, SO I DID SHORTER TURNS AND GOT OUT OF THE WAY

RICHIE PORTE