CRITÉRIUM DU DAUPHINÉ (ST. 3)

Colbrelli (TBV) takes the win in a hard sprint followed by Aranburu (APT) and McNulty (UAD). Alejandro Valverde is 11th, Miguel Ángel López and Enric Mas finish with no issues.

A 172,5 km stage, with two climbs in the first half, in which 2-man break with Goldstein (ISN) and Vliegen (IWG) had up to 3′ minutes with the main group.

The stage remained pretty much uneventful until the descent of the second climb, Col des Limites (3rd cat.), where some teams tried to break in half the peloton but had no success. This led to an increase of the pace that made possible to catch the break around 20km to go.

Tension and speed were present on the final kilometers, with teams lining up in the first positions of the main group in order to avoid unpleasant surprises. Unfortunately a crash on the rear of the peloton caught some riders from COF. None of our guys were involved as Imanol Erviti, Carlos Verona and Jorge Arcas did a magnificent job keeping our leaders safe.

The uphill sprint saw the peloton split, but Alejandro Valverde managed to finish 11th, Miguel Ángel López and Enric Mas ended up with the same time as the winner

TT day for tomorrow with 16,4 km between Firminy and Roche-La-Molière.

Start times:
13:50 – Imanol Erviti
13:56 – Jorge Arcas
14:47 – José Joaquín Rojas
14:50 – Carlos Verona
15:07 – Miguel Ángel López
15:19 – Enric Mas
15:35 – Alejandro Valverde

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto