Soler up to 10th overall after first mountain stage
07 June 2018

Critérium du Dauphiné (st. 4)

Catalan climber supported by Rosón, Carretero until final climb to Lans-en-Vercors: enters GC top-ten with three tough days remaining. Moscon (SKY) new race leader after Alaphilippe's (QST) victorious sprint.

Julian Alaphilippe (QST) made his uphill sprinting skills count at the finish of Lans-en-Vercors (Cat-2), end of the first mountain stage in the 2018 Critérium du Dauphiné (181km). The day’s racing saw Marc Soler notably improving his GC result, after a decent performance from all of his team-mates at Wednesday’s TTT, the Catalan youngster now 10th overall.

Soler got strongly – joined by Jaime Rosón and a notable Héctor Carretero – through the day’s main climb, the inedit Mont Noir (HC), into a GC group where Sky aborted all major moves: already from the start (52km in the 1st hour), with a 33-man breakaway also including Marc and Héctor, as well as the late breaks, with Dario Cataldo (AST) as last ‘survivor’. The explosive finish forced Soler to just limit losses against more suited specialists: the Spaniard took 16th in the day, only 8″ back, which gets him to 1’48” behind new race leader Gianni Moscon (SKY).

Soler will continue to seek for a good final result at Friday’s stage five (130km), finishing atop the HC climb of Valmorel, thirteen kilometers at 7% average. It will be the preface to the decisive weekend stages, short yet with plenty of Alpine climbs well put together.

Picture (c): Luca Bettini / BettiniPhoto.net