NÎMES: BMC Racing emerged victors from Saturday’s team time trial as the VueltaaEspana got underway under heightened security measures following two terrorist attacks in northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia. For just the third time the Vuelta started outside Spain in the southern French city of Nimes as American team BMC beat out Quick-Step Floors and Team Sunweb by six seconds in a time of 15mins 58secs for the 13.7km route with Australian Rohan Dennis taking the leader’s red jersey. Pre-race favourite Chris Froome’s Sky team finished fourth a further three seconds back, but that was still enough for Froome to gain some early ground on his rivals in the general classification. Published in Daily Times, August 20th 2017.