Crit̩rium du Dauphin̩ Рstage 4

Prendas_BannerAdvertJuly2011

Six years after winning stage 5 of the 2008 Critérium du Dauphiné, Yuriy Trofimov raised his arms up in the air again in Gap on stage 4 of the 2014 Edition

RST Cycle Clothing & Trigon Bikes

Crit̩rium du Dauphin̩ Рstage 4

Six years after winning stage 5 of the 2008 Critérium du Dauphiné and having scored only one victory since (stage 2 of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in 2009), Yuriy Trofimov raised his arms up in the air again in Gap.

Etape_4_Trofimov

©A.S.O./G. Demouveaux

The 30 year-old Russian from Katusha, rode away from the front group on the ascent to col de Manse but as he was a threat Chris Froome’s yellow jersey, Sky gave him his freedom.

After a few skirmishes that highlighted the ambitions of French champion Arthur Vichot (FDJ.fr) and his compatriots Sylvain Chavanel (IAM), a 13-man breakaway was formed at km 21 with Andriy Grivko (Astana), Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Maxime Bouet (AG2R), Romain Sicard (Europcar), Pim Ligthart (Lotto), Gustav Larsson (IAM), Damiano Caruso (Cannondale), Bob Jungels (Trek), Peter Velits (BMC), Yuriy Trofimov (Katusha), Jan Bakelants (OPQS) and Lars-Petter Nordhaug (Belkin).

Their maximum advantage was 4.50 at 60 kilometres. Bouet was the highest ranked on GC at only 2.43 so Team Sky couldn’t allow the move to enjoy a lot of freedom. From the eight teams who had missed the front group, NetApp-Endura was the first one to put riders into the chase.

At the bottom of Col de Manse, Caruso accelerated but the front group was back together until Trofimov rode away solo two kilometers before the top. Among his former breakaway companions, Erviti and Jungels crashed on the downhill while a trio had escaped from the bunch: Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC).

Etape_4_Trofimov2

Photo: © Tim De Waele / Team Katusha

On the other hand, none of the favourites attacked Froome in the quest for the yellow jersey but the time gaps recorded on the finishing line weren’t big enough for either Bouet (now 7th at 1.01) to take the lead overall or Bardet to move into the top ten on GC (12th at 1.40). The top six is unchanged before the hardest Alpine stages ahead.

Yuriy Trofimov: “I am very happy today! Honestly, I did not expect to win a stage here in the Dauphiné. Because of British visa affairs, I had to move part of my preparation from Europe to Russia so I was unsure of my real level of fitness right now. Today, we had the job to go in the breakaway and I managed to do that”.

“The break was a good one and all of the riders worked well. Closer to the finish we all knew we’d have a chance to play for the stage victory. I knew this climb because I was here in the Tour de France. And the last time I made a mistake of attacking too early. This time I let others do that and waited for the perfect moment. Finally everything went well”.

Stage 5 on Thursday is 189km from Sisteron to La Mure. The course features 3 category two climbs and three category 3 climbs along the way.

 

 

Other Results on VeloUK (including reports containing results)

Other News on VeloUK

Tags: