Critérium du Dauphiné (st. 2)

Movistar Team's two young climbers -joined by Jorge Arcas- finish inside 70-man peloton at Belleville. Ackermann (BOH) takes sprint victory as Impey (MTS) reaches GC lead.

The 2018 Critérium du Dauphiné again made things difficult for the sprinters during stage two, held over 181km from Montbrison to Belleville on Tuesday and including five Cat-3 and Cat-4 climbs for more than 2,000m of vertical gain.

Barely seventy riders, half the bunch competing in the Alpine race, was able to reach the finish together -with Pascal Ackermann (BOH) as the day’s winner-, a selection created through fast pace at the Col de Fût d’Avenas (Cat-3). Three Movistar Team riders were able to make that split: Marc Soler, Jaime Rosón and Jorge Arcas.

The Blues’ young, main GC references thus kept their privileged overall positions intact -Soler is 17th, 22″ behind new race leader Daryl Impey (MTS), 3rd at the finish, while Rosón now sits 27″ back– and also guaranteed a late start (3.35pm CEST; 16th team of 22) for the Telefónica-backed squad at Wednesday’s important team time trial to Louhans (35 km), over a completely flat course which will surely create some significant time gaps overall.

Picture (c): BettiniPhoto.net