Critérium du Dauphiné: Yates Leads, Froome Out

Britain’s Adam Yates 6th in Dauphine time trial moves into the overall race lead after four-days of racing at Critérium du Dauphiné. Chris Froome crashes in warmup and is out of race and Tour de France

Critérium du Dauphiné: Yates Leads, Froome Out

Britain’s Adam Yates had a strong ride in today’s individual time trial to move himself into the overall race lead after four-days of racing at Critérium du Dauphiné. Meanwhile, Chris Froome crashed in the recce of the course and is out of the Tour de France in July.

Brailsford according to Journalist Andrew Hood on twitter says of it: “He crashed in the downhill section of the course at high speed. He hit a wall. It’s a very serious accident. Clearly, he won’t be at the start of the Tour de France. It’ll take quite a long time before he races again.”

The stage winner was Wout Van Aert.

Yates meanwhile started the stage in 10th place overall, 24 seconds down on race leader Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), and after his powerful performance resulting in sixth place on the stage, the 26-year-old did enough to move into the race leader’s jersey, four-seconds ahead of Teuns.

In the early proceedings of the 26.1kilometre time trial, it was Alex Dowsett (Katusha-Alpecin) who set the early bench mark with a time of 35minutes 16 seconds. The fairly technical course with one climb up to 613metres, saw some large time gaps opening up, and the general classification began to naturally take shape.

Things got interesting in the second part of the race as Woet van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma) beat the next best time set by stage favourite Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) by over 47seconds.

Knowing the time to beat, Yates set off and headed through the first time check after 11.5kilometres of racing, with a promising time of 19minutes 16seconds, which was good enough for a provisional third fastest time.

After fighting his way around the final downhill kilometres of the course, Yates eventually crossed the line with a very respectable time of 34 minutes 34seconds, for sixth position.

As the last nine riders completed the distance, Yates sat as the virtual race leader waiting patiently to see Teuns’ time. Having given everything he had, the Mitchelton-SCOTT rider’s time proved to be enough to move into the yellow jersey, an exciting position to be in with four-hard stages to come.

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Adam Yates – Overall race leader – “I went out, did the best I could and here we are. We knew it would be a hard day but it was a very good course for me, really. These big long straights aren’t my favourite but I put my head down and rode the climb as fast as possible.

“I made a good time. It was a good day for me. It’s a sprinters’ stage tomorrow, so hopefully other teams will be eager to control. It’ll be a massive task to bring the yellow jersey until the end. I hope to do it but I’ll take it day by day. It’s gonna be tricky. I’m sure the mountain stages will be hard to control.”

Woet van Aert (Team Jumbo-Visma): “It’s a great win. I can’t believe it”, Van Aert says. “I have worked a lot on my time trial in recent weeks, but I never expected to win here. I am very happy with this victory. Obviously the course suited me very well with the long straight roads and that climb. I knew I could do good time trials, but I never really focused on it because of my cyclocross duties. This highly experienced team focuses on this discipline and that makes a big difference. This was my first time trial in the colours of Team Jumbo-Visma and I immediately won the race. It is also my first WorldTour victory. It couldn’t have been more beautiful.”

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1. Wout Van Aert Team Jumbo – Visma 33:38
2. Tejay Van Garderen EF Education First + 31
3. Tom Dumoulin Team Sunweb + 47
4. Steven Kruijswijk Team Jumbo – Visma + 49
5. Emanuel Buchmann Bora – Hansgrohe + 51
6. Adam Yates Mitchelton – Scott + 56
7. Julian Alaphilippe Deceuninck – Quick Step + 59
8. Nils Politt Team Katusha – Alpecin + 01:05 17
9. Jakob Fuglsang Astana Pro Team + 01:07 04
10. Remi Cavagna Deceuninck – Quick Step + 01:10 85

11. Richie Porte Trek – Segafredo + 01:19
12. Thibaut Pinot Groupama – FDJ + 01:21 06
14. Dylan Teuns Bahrain – Merida + 01:24
18. Nairo Quintana Movistar Team + 01:36
19. Wout Poels Team Ineos + 01:36
20. Daniel Martin UAE Team Emirates + 01:38 13
22. Alex Dowsett Team Katusha – Alpecin + 01:38 107
27. Romain Bardet AG2R La Mondiale + 01:52 14
135. Ian Stannard Team Ineos + 05:27

GC
1. Adam Yates Mitchelton – Scott 12:27:26
2. Dylan Teuns Bahrain – Merida 04
3. Tejay Van Garderen EF Education First 06
4. Jakob Fuglsang Astana Pro Team 07
5. Steven Kruijswijk Team Jumbo – Visma 24
6. Thibaut Pinot Groupama – FDJ 25
7. Emanuel Buchmann Bora – Hansgrohe 26
8. Alexey Lutsenko Astana Pro Team 30
9. Wout Van Aert Team Jumbo – Visma 30
10. Nairo Quintana Movistar Team 40

11. Wout Poels Team Ineos 40
12. Richie Porte Trek – Segafredo 54
13. Daniel Martin UAE Team Emirates 01:13
14. Romain Bardet AG2R La Mondiale 01:27