Tour de France champion fastest of a late three-man move; Bradley Wiggins moves into the lead
Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) put the slight disappointment of the previous day’s prologue performance with victory in the first road stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, between Seyssins and Saint-Vallier. The Tour de France champion was the fastest of a three-man breakaway, which escaped with less than five kilometres of the 187km stage remaining.
The Australian led the trio into the finishing straight and managed to hold off the attentions of Jérôme Coppel (Saur-Sojasun), whose attack had started the move, with Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) taking third.
“It was a technical descent, quite narrow as well,” explained Evans afterwards. “I saw an opportunity there to go clear of the peloton. You have to try something when you’re in that situation.
“Normally, it was favourable for the peloton to catch us but they didn’t,” he continued. “I’m a racer, I like to compete and do such moves. Things have to go your way if you try but you have to try something somewhere…
“This shows that the work I’ve done at training has been good but there’s still a lot of work to be done until the Tour de France,” he added.
Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-BigMat) led the peloton across the line just four seconds behind them. Prologue winner Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge) was in a group 27 seconds back, which meant that British champion Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) took over the race lead, with Evans a single second behind him.
The stage was characterised by a long distance break from Giovanni Bernaudeau (Europcar), Markel Irizar (RadioShack-Nissan), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Sep Vanmarcke (Garmin-Barracuda) and Japanese champion Yukihiro Doi (Argos-Shimano). The six riders managed to build a maximum lead of more than 13 minutes before the peloton began to close them down; Doi and Bernadeau were the first to be dropped, followed by Tjallingii on the final climb of the day with just over ten kilometres to go, and Irizar tried to go it alone shortly afterwards.
The Spanish rider was just a few seconds clear as he rode over the top, with just nine kilometres to go, however, and was caught as a series of attacks were launched from the front of the peloton on the descent. The last of these came from Rolland, Kashechkin and Evans, which managed to stay away to the finish.
A six man group goes early as Giovanni Bernadeau sweeps up the mountain points
The jagged-profiled stage featured three 4th, two 3rd and one 2nd category climb, but it was the 3rd category Côte de la Sizeranne, which would top out with just nine kilometres to go, that was likely to be the most important of all.
Bernaudeau, Irizar, Edet and Tjallingii escaped after just four kilometres, and were quickly joined by Vanmarcke and Doi. They were quickly allowed to open up a huge lead over the peloton, which reached 13’10” after 45km, as Lotto-Belisol calmly led behind them. As the headwind switched to a crosswind however, the pace of the peloton lifted and the gap began to fall sharply.
After 47km though, an innocuous looking crash brought down Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ-BigMat) and Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi); the Frenchman was soon back in the peloton - although he paid a visit to the doctor’s car with a pain in his knee - but the Olympic champion was unable to rejoin, apparently suffering with suspected broken ribs. Euskaltel-Euskadi teammates Ricardo Garcia and Peio Bilbao dropped back to help Sánchez, but over the top of the 3rd category Côte de Chambaran after 90.5km, he was 6’45” behind.
Saur-Sojasun, Team Sky, Orica-GreenEdge and BMC Racing all came forward to join Lotto-Belisol and the gap to the leaders steadily closed and, with 50km to go, it was down to just three minutes.
On the 4th category climb of the Côte de Potences with 37km to go, as Bernadeau took the points over the top - as he had done on every other climb so far - BMC Racing moved forward in force.
Inside the final 30km a crash towards the back of the peloton saw half a dozen riders come down, including Australian and Dutch champions Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM). Dan Martin (Garmin-Barracuda) looked to be the most seriously affected, and the race ambulance briefly stopped beside him, but the Irishman was eventually up and riding again.
Once the riders had regrouped at the rear of the peloton, Omega Pharma-Quick Step came to the front and began to shut the break down. The gap finally dropped below two minutes as the leaders entered the final 20km.
As they entered the final 15km the spirit of co-operation between the six leaders began to evaporate and, mostly under the impetus of Tjallingii and Irizar, Bernadeau and Doi were dropped. With 12km to go though, the four remaining leaders were less than a minute behind, as they approached the foot of the final climb.
The break fragments as the peloton approaches and some of the big boys lose contact
Omega Pharma-Quick Step was still leading, with almost its entire team lined up on the front, and riders began to splinter off the back. With a kilometre still to climb Tjallingii, Irizar, Vanmarcke and Edet were little more than 30 seconds clear, as the Dutchman was dropped.
Meanwhile, at the back of the peloton, Andy Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) was among those to lose contact, along with Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana).
As the top approached Irizar struck out alone, while behind him, Pierre Rolland (Europcar) bridged across to Vanmarcke and Edet, and passed them as they crossed the summit. As the peloton caught Tjallingii, Rabobank teammate Luis León Sánchez attacked, along with Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing); they quickly caught up with Rolland, but had the peloton on their heels. Rolland’s Europcar teammate Cyril Gautier counterattacked and got a small gap, but the front of the peloton was just behind him.
Irizar was just a few seconds clear now, as he almost left the road on a sharp bend. Gautier did the same, just behind him, as the front of the peloton streamed past him.
Finally, with five kilometres to go, Irizar was caught by the front of the peloton, and there was an immediate attack from Jérôme Coppel (Saur-Sojasun). He was joined by Andrei Kashechkin (Astana) and Tour de France champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), and they pulled a few seconds clear of the fractured bunch.
Omega Pharma-Quick Step was leading the pursuit, but under the flamme rouge the trio was still five seconds clear. Evans was leading but, as they entered the final two hundred metres Coppel tried to come around him to take the stage; the Australian managed to hold the Frenchman off however, to take victory by a wheel.
The group containing Schleck and Vinokourov came in some 3’10” behind, while Dan Martin crossed the line alone after 16’39”; Sánchez limped home with Bilbao and Garcia 23’54” later, and was a serious doubt for stage two.