June 10/19 11:03 am - Criterium du Dauphine: Stage 2, Woods 5th

Posted by Editoress on 06/10/19
 

Belgian Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) took the victory at the end of an epic stage of the 71st Critérium du Dauphiné as he outmatched Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) in a two-man sprint a few seconds before the group of the favourites on a very competitive day of racing. The 27 year old also moved into the overall lead, almost two years after his last win, the general classification of the 2017 Arctic Race of Norway.

13 riders in the lead, including Dumoulin and Alaphilippe
154 riders took the start of stage 2 in Mauriac. Davide Ballerini (Astana) was the first attacker before Mikael Chérel (AG2R-La Mondiale), Gregor Mühlberger (BORA-hansgrohe), Lennard Hofstede (Jumbo-Visma) and Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) rode away from the peloton. They were joined by Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick Step) but up the Côte de Moussages (cat. 2, km 11), a royal breakaway took shape with 14 riders: Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos), Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott), Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Julian Alaphilippe and Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Emanuel Buchmann and Gregor Mühlberger (BORA-hansgrohe), Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Ruben Fernandez (Movistar), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Carl Fredrik Hagen (Lotto-Soudal), Alessandro De Marchi (CCC) and Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb). Kwiatkowski was called back to the pack by Team Ineos who then seized the command of the peloton as Stefan de Bod was also reined in after being sent in between the 13 escapees and the bunch by Dimension Data, the team of race leader Edvald Boasson Hagen.

A leading quintet at Brioude
The breakaway group recorded a maximum advantage of 1m50s atop the côte de Cheylade, km 46, after which Chris Froome had a flat tire. The triple winner of the Critérium du Dauphiné was dragged back to the pack and his team kept chasing strongly as the front group comprised some big names: Alaphilippe, Dumoulin, Buchmann, Izagirre and Gaudu who are potential yellow-blue jersey contenders. Following several withdrawals including those of Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), the peloton split in two parts with green jersey wearer Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick Step) caught at the back. In the feed zone (km 96), Cavagna rode away solo from the leading group. He was later chased by Cosnefroy, Alaphilippe, Hagen and De Marchi. The quintet passed Brioude (km 111), the hometown of Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale), with an advantage of 20’s over their former breakaway companions and 1m25s over the peloton led by Ineos.

Teuns and Martin, brave hearts
After the 13-man front group was reunited and Cavagna attacked a second time, Dumoulin accelerated up the côte de la Baraque with 52km to go. Buchmann, Gaudu and Izagirre went with him. De Marchi briefly rejoined them but struggled to hold the pace. The leading quartet was reeled in with 35km to go. 12 riders formed a new front group 30km before the end: Gilbert and Petr Vakoc (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Serge Pauwels and Pawel Bernas (CCC), Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Chérel (AG2R-La Mondiale), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Darwin Atapuma (Cofidis), Rob Power (Sunweb) and Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin). Teuns and G. Martin rode away in the last climb of the day, the côte de St-Victor-sur-Arlanc, with 20km to go. Chris Froome and Wout Poels (Ineos), Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Jakob Fuglsang and Lutsenko (Astana), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Michael Woods (EF) and Vakoc formed the strong group of the favourites (without Romain Bardet, Richie Porte, Dan Martin and Steven Kruijswijk who stayed behind) but they didn’t quite manage to rein in Teuns and Martin. In a slightly uphill finish in Craponne-sur-Arzon, the Belgian who previously made the top 3 in Flèche Wallonne and the Tour of Lombardy proved to be a little bit faster than the Frenchman. Teuns is the new leader of the Dauphiné.

Results

Criterium du Dauphine: Stage 1