Crit. du Dauphiné (St. 1)

Amador -already 9th in the overall-, Cobo, Plaza, Kiryienka and Quintana -with Erviti y López closely behind- make the main group split by the last climb of the day

After Sunday’s prologue and before the long iTT on Thursday and the three mountain stages in the weekend, the 64th Critérium du Dauphiné witnessed a difficult finale on Monday during the first road trek on French turf. The 187 kilometers from Seyssins to Saint-Vallier had no major history in the early phases, with a six-man attempt going away until the last climb of the day, where the peloton split as Andrey Amador tried his way into the descent, preceeding the decisive move by Evans (BMC), Coppel (SAU) and Kashechkin (AST) with 4k to go, that led to a stage triumph by the reigning champion of the Tour de France.

Only four seconds behind the three on front, Movistar Team set five riders into the pursuit group: Quintana, Cobo, Kiryienka, Plaza and Amador, who jumps into the ninth place overall behind the new maillot jaune Bradley Wiggins (SKY), as the former leader Luke Durbridge (OGE) came into a second field including David López and Imanol Erviti. Stage two tomorrow will bring 160km from Lamastre to Saint-Félicien with another six categorized climbs, the last one with its top of the finish after 2.5k on a 4,4% average.