Both Julian Alaphilippe and Bob Jungels are on the podium, within seconds off the lead, with three days remaining.
Stage 5 of the Tour of Britain put on the table a short but challenging team time trial, starting in Cockermouth, an ancient market town in Cumbria, and finishing atop Whinlatter, a 6km-climb averaging 4% which will be tackled twice on the race's queen-stage. Each squad took off at a three-minute interval, with Quick-Step Floors among the last teams to roll down the ramp on Thursday afternoon.
Despite two riders dropping off early from the train, Quick-Step Floors powered onwards on the and put in a storming ride on the hard uphill part of the course, bettering the provisional time at the finish and stopping the clock in 19:53, a result which at the end of the day was enough for second, behind LottoNL-Jumbo, and our team's third top 3 finish at this edition of the Tour of Britain.
Following this strong and impressive ride, Julian Alaphilippe and Bob Jungels have both moved up in the general classification, where they sit six and 16 seconds respectively behind the leader, thus giving Quick-Step Floors two options on the tough stage 6, where everything will be decided.
"We knew it was going to be difficult, but we still rode one of the best team time trials of the season. It's never pretty when you finish second and we would have liked to get hold of the leader's jersey, but considering the circumstances, we can be content with our result. The GC is far from being a done deal, as tomorrow another hard day awaits, and we will be again motivated to give our best and make the maximum out of that stage", sports director Brian Holm explained in Whinlatter.
Photo credit: ©Justin Setterfield/ Getty Images
Julian Alaphilippe 
