Perreux (France) (AFP) - American Matteo Jorgenson led Visma-Lease a Bike over the line to win Tuesday’s 28km team time-trial at the Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes as Frenchman Alex Baudin retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.

Baudin, who won Sunday’s opening stage, led his EF Education-Easy Post team to a third-placed finish, 29 seconds off Visma’s time.

That was enough to give him a 12sec lead over Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin and Briton Oscar Onley in the overall standings after they led Netcompany Ineos to a second-placed finish on the third stage around Perreux.

“We’re going to see how far I can go, we’re lucky to have this jersey, we’re enjoying it, we’ll go right to the end and we’re not putting any pressure on ourselves,” said Baudin when asked how much longer he could hold onto the yellow jersey.

Jorgenson, a twice former winner of Paris-Nice, moved up to fourth overall at 15sec.

“It’s seven times better than winning on your own because we get the moment right afterwards together, which in cycling you don’t often get where you win together with your teammates,” said Jorgenson in reference to the seven-man team.

“It’s a really cool discipline and a really nice day.”

But pre-race favourite Paul Seixas, the teenage French prodigy, lost 45 seconds with his Decathlon CMA CGM team finishing sixth, while overall contenders Juan Ayuso and Isaac Del Toro lost 32 and 61 seconds respectively.

“We’re a little bit disappointed, we are below what we expected,” said Seixas.

“Days like this happen, it’s not a big deal, we’ll bounce back, we didn’t lose three minutes.”

Spaniard Ayuso and his Danish Lidl-Trek team-mate Mattias Skjelmose moved up to fifth and sixth overall at 47sec, with Seixas now 12th at 1min and Mexican Del Toro 16th at 1min 16sec.

- ‘Not my strategy’ -

Australian sprinter Michael Matthews had set the early pace for Team Jayco Aula with a time of 33:46 after a blistering finish to the race against the clock.

But Lidl, who finished fourth at 32sec, soon smashed that before Netcompany then set the new benchmark, although they lost crucial time when Onley’s chain dropped, forcing him to fix it at high speed.

Without that, Netcompany might well have won the stage, and Vauquelin was not happy with the team’s decision to slow down and wait for Onley, who is joint team leader alongside him.

“It’s a bit complicated, it’s a delicate situation,” said Vauquelin, who said he felt the team had lost “15-20 seconds”.

“That’s huge. That wouldn’t have been my strategy but we will review it with the team.”

Baudin’s EF were inspired by their bid to retain the yellow jersey and kept in touch through the two time checks.

Visma finished the strongest, in part due to Onley’s troubles, and Jorgenson is now well-placed to push for overall victory once the race hits the high mountains at the end of the week.

“I think the last 10 kilometres we couldn’t have gone any faster. I was given a free ride to the last climb,” said Jorgenson, who crashed out of the Ardennes classics in April after a good start to the season where he was second at Tirreno-Adriatico and the Drome Classic.

“On a personal level, it feels good to win a race and it is really nice after the spring I’ve had to come back and be on top again.”

Vauquelin and Onley are also well-placed but there is work to do for Seixas and Del Toro to claw back the time they lost.

Before the final three summit finishes, Wednesday and Thursday’s stages invite a battle between the breakaway and the sprint teams.