Rui Costa -12th- was the best placed rider from Movistar Team in the opening prologue of the 65th Critérium du Dauphiné, the demanding stagerace that opens the way for the riders contesting the Tour de France along with next week's Tour de Suisse.

Costa did a notable effort in the complicated 5.4k route in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, including a short Cat. 4 climb in the first kilometer of racing, and completed the route just 12 seconds off the pace of the day’s dominator and first race leader Lars Boom (RAB). The rest of the group led today by Yvon Ledanois did a nice performance, except for David López, who lost more time than expected due to a misleading into the route direction under the rain on Alpine turf. Tomorrow’s finish in Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse will mark the first of two difficult, uphill finished into the race before Grenoble’s long time trial on Wednesday and the three mountain stages in the next weekend.