Critérium du Dauphiné (st. 4)

Great 4th place for the Basque rider, just one minute behind world champion Tony Martin; Madrazo, Valverde lose just over 2 minutes

Firmly established into the world’s elite of time trial, Jonathan Castroviejo fought to an outstanding performance in a terrain slightly different from the ones of his previous appearances. The Basque rider from the Movistar Team took fourh in the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné time trial, a flat, 32.5-kilometer route from Villars-les-Dombes to the Parc des Oiseaux, where he was beaten only by three of the world’s biggest specialists: Chris Froome (SKY), new race leader Rohan Dennis (GRS) and world champion and stage winner Tony Martin (OPQ), just one minute and eight seconds ahead of the Spaniard.

The other fight of the day was played into the GC riders. Alejandro Valverde and Ángel Madrazo, the two highest-ranked men from the squad directed on French soil by José Luis Jaimerena and José Luis Laguía, limited their losses to come about two minutes behind Froome and Sky team-mate Richie Porte, besting the results from fellow countrymen Alberto Contador (TST) and Joaquim Rodríguez (KAT). For both, as well as the rest of the climbers in this year’s French event, there will still be three mountain stages, starting on Thursday with 139 kilometers between Gresy-sur-Aix and the HC climb of Valmorel (12.7km, 7% avg.)