June 8/14 11:28 am - Criterium du Dauphine: Stage 1

Posted by Editoress on 06/8/14
 

Chris Froome (Team Sky) showed during the second part of the inaugural time trial that he’s still above his rivals as a time triallist for the big stage races. With one month to go to the start of the Tour de France, he beat arch rival Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) by eight seconds on the 10.4km course while third favourite Vincenzo Nibali took the polka dot jersey as he scored the best time at the top of the hill. The sensation of stage 1 of the 66th Critérium du Dauphiné is 21 year old Bob Jungels who finished third and took the white jersey of best young rider.

Jungels early in the lead
Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) confirmed his excellent showing at the Giro d’Italia (7th overall) as he set the best time for a while: 13.24. Being the second rider crossing the line, he stayed on top of the classification for half an hour, resisting even to his team-mate and compatriot Lars Boom who clocked in only three tenth of a second slower than him. However, another young rider bettered the Dutchman as Luxemburg’s Bob Jungels rode in 13.22. The time trial expert from Trek who was a junior world champion in that specialty had chosen to compete early with the aim of avoiding a potentially stronger wind later on, so did a few GC contenders. It gave the indication that Tejay van Garderen (BMC) started the Dauphiné in a better condition than Michal Kwiatkowski (OPQS), Richie Porte (Sky) and Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R-La Mondiale). The latter who lives in Lyon had crashed while training on the course two days before.

Talansky close to the podium
One revelation of the day was French neo pro Julian Alaphilippe (OPQS) who scored the best time at the top of the Montée de l’Observance (km 4.6), provisionally entered the top ten but didn’t threat the lead of Jungels who remained the best young rider till the end. Only in his first year outside the U26 category, Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) set the second best time behind Jungels but gave the go to the hot favourites of the Dauphiné. His fourth place at the end confirmed that he’s back in contention for the mountainous stage races this summer.

Contador-Froome: duel on the road
A virtual polka dot jersey wearer, Alaphilippe was only beaten at the top of the hill by the three super stars: Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) who took the polka dot jersey, Chris Froome (Sky) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo). Only one second separated the Brit and the Spaniard at the intermediate time check but Froome was the strongest against the wind in the final part of the race. Therefore he increased his lead over Contador to eight seconds but the race remains widely open with a very interesting stage 2 coming up and including a hill top finish at the col de Béal.
Courtesy ASO

Results from the first stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné