Blues show good attitude on Dauphiné’s first road stage
04 June 2018

Critérium du Dauphiné (st. 1)

Soler on the attack into final hill as Rosón takes 10th in restricted group's sprint, leads Movistar Team's performance in first of two rolling stages before Wednesday's TTT.

South African champion Daryl Impey (MTS) won stage one of the 2018 Critérium du Dauphiné into a short-field, uphill sprint at the end of the 179km parcours from Valence to Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert. The last two local laps over the Côte du Barrage de Grangent (Cat-4) added some spice to Monday’s finale, the Movistar Team riders always staying together, active and close to the front.

The work by the likes of Castrillo, Erviti, Arcas, Sütterlin and Carretero, keeping Jaime Rosón and Marc Soler well covered before the circuit, led both of the Blues riding prominenly in the last 5km. Soler jumped away from the field into the last descent, responding to previous accelerations by Julian Alaphilippe (QST) and race leader Michal Kwiatkowski (SKY), while Rosón waited for the sprint, trying to surprise the other punchy climbers still surviving the pace. Jaime got a 10th place, with Marc, Héctor and Jasha also into that first group.

The Dauphiné will tackle another rolling parcours, the last chance for the sprinters, in Belleville on Tuesday (181km), before Wednesday’s team time trial and the four consecutive mountain finishes starting on Thursday. Sütterlin, 15th at 17″ from Kwiatkowski, remains as top Movistar Team rider in the standings.

Picture (c): Luca Bettini / BettiniPhoto.net