Crit̩rium du Dauphin̩ РFroome Leads after TT

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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.

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Crit̩rium du Dauphin̩ РFroome Leads after TT

ASO Press Release
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.

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.

Etape_1_Froome

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.

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.

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.

Reactions

Chris Froome: “I’m very very happy with my performance today. I didn’t think I’d do so well in such a short and flat time trial. I’m definitely here to try and win the race overall. We’ll do everything we can but the most important is to wear the yellow jersey at the end of the race, not at the beginning. The Dauphiné this year is really hard from stage 1 and stage 2. Looking at the results today, we expect a very big race in the mountains. I’m pretty much where I was last year if not a little bit better.”

Alberto Contador: “My time is OK! For me, the last part was hard. I knew there would be a strong head wind to finish. It made the race very hard. I didn’t want to take any useless risk in the downhill as I knew that a motorbike had crashed in the morning so I feared some oil on the road. The most important for me was not to crash. My feeling on the bike was good. I’m very happy with the result.”

Vincenzo Nibali: “I’ve done a very good race. For sure, it was more difficult than I thought. When I went to reconnoitre the course this morning, there wasn’t much wind. I didn’t think it would blow so strongly later so I had a big wheel at the front but I’m very happy with my ride. Those who competed earlier have had more favorable conditions so my references are the other GC favourites and I’m not far down. I know that I’ve trained very well and I came here with no stress, only with the aim of racing with serenity. That’s why I’m relieved by this good start. I’ll take the race day by day.”

Result
1. Froome Christopher, Team Sky 13:13
2. Contador Alberto, Tinkoff-Saxo@ 0:08
3. Jungels Bob, Trek Factory Racing @0:09
4. Talansky Andrew, Garmin Sharp @0:11
5. Kelderman Wilco, Belkin-Pro Cycling Team
6. Boom Lars, Belkin-Pro Cycling Team @0:12
7. Kiryienka Vasil, Team Sky
8. Nibali Vincenzo, Astana Pro Team @0:13
9. van Garderen, TejayBMC Racing Team
10. Brändle Matthias, IAM Cycling

11. Barta Jan, Team NetApp – Endura
16. Thomas Geraint, Team Sky @0.14
19. Chavanel Sylvain, IAM Cycling @ 0:16
20. Kwiatkowski Michal, Omega Pharma – Quick-Step
23. Porte Richie, Team Sky @0:19
53. Voigt Jens, Trek Factory Racing @ 0:33
64. Yates Adam, Orica GreenEDGE @0.39
74. Millar David, Garmin Sharp @0.42
125. Thwaites Scott, Team NetApp – Endura @1:06
148. Hushovd Thor, BMC Racing Team @1:22
149. Bauer Jack, Garmin Sharp

 

 

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