After the prologue won by Alberto Contador (Astana) yesterday, today's stage from Evian-les-Bains to Saint-Laurent-du-Pont was destined for the sprinters. In the last climb before the finish, the leading group was taken back and a final attempt by Janez Brajkovic (Team Radioshack) and Eros Capecchi (Footon-Servetto) in the descent was destined to fail because the sprinters teams were preparing a bunch sprint.
The Slovenian rider Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) wins it ahead of the Slovakian Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) and the British Geraint Thomas (Team Sky). Alberto Contador finishes 34th in the same group and thus keeps the yellow jersey.

The summary of the stage Evian-les-Bains > Saint-Laurent-du-Pont du Critérium of the Dauphiné 2010

At the end of the morning the riders started for a 191.5 kilometers stage starting in Evian-les-Bains and containing the climbs of the Côte de Mornex (4th), the Côte de Sallenôves (4th), the Côte de Chilly (3th) and finally at the end of the stage the Côte de Miribel-les-Echelles (3th) with its top at 6 kilometers from the finish in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont.

All 175 riders came to the start and several of them tried to get away right from the start, but we had to wait until kilometer 14 to see an attack of Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) and Cyril Gautier (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) develop to the leading group of the day, together with Dominique Rollin (Cervélo TestTeam), Matthieu Ladagnous (Française des Jeux) and Sébastien Minard (Cofidis).

At the top of the first climb, the Côte de Mornex, Matthieu Ladagnous arrives first on top, ahead of Gautier and Rollin. The gap of the leading group continues to grow, up to 9'50". At the first intermediate sprint in Cruseilles the gap is still 9 minutes when Dominique Rollin passes ahead of Gautier and Minard. The two last ones take the 1st and 3rd places at the top of the Côte de Sallenôves with Matthieu Ladagnous in between and 7'40" ahead of the peloton.

At the top of the Côte de Chilly, Matthieu Ladagnous again takes the biggest number of points, ahead of Gautier and Kadri. The peloton, led by Team Saxo Bank, follows 6'40" later. When the riders of the Danish team leave their place at the front of the peloton, the gap goes back up to 9 minutes before the Garmin-Transitions and Astana teams make it shrink again.

At 25 kilometers from the finish, led by Garmin-Transitions, Team Saxo Bank and Rabobank, the peloton brings back the gap to 2'35" and at the last intermediate sprint in Les Echelles, Dominique Rollin, Cyril Gautier and Sébastien Minard pass the line in that order with only 50 seconds on the peloton. In the climb of the Côte de Miribel-les-Echelles Cyril Gautier gives it a final try but one by one the 5 leading riders are taken back: Gautier being the last one when Kevin Seeldrayers (Quick Step) and Oscar Pujol (Cervélo TestTeam) get ahead of the peloton to take back the French rider just before the top.

In the descent, these two riders are taken back by a group composed of Jurgen van den Broeck (Omega Pharma Lotto), Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Eros Capecchi (Footon-Servetto), Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) and Janez Brajkovic (Team Radioshack) and the last one attacks to continue alone. He's joined by Capecchi but the two riders are taken back in the last kilometer and the same goes for David Le Lay. In the bunch sprint which follows, Grega Bole manages to get over Geraint Thomas (Team Sky, who finishes 3th) in the last few meters to win the stage before Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) without even being able to put his hands up in the air.

The reaction of the stage winner, Grega Bole

After the finish, Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) declared to letour.fr: I'm very happy, this is my first big victory. The Dauphiné is such a big race! I've had many second places before. Especially in Paris-Nice this year, and the next day I fell, broke two bones and haven't been able to ride my bike for two months.
Today I joined the first group only in the last kilometer because I was retarded by the fall of a Cofidis rider. Two Sky riders started the sprint and I managed to get over them at 200 meters from the line. Now I'm ready to ride my first Tour de France.

The classifications of the 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné after the 1st stage

The stage classification for Evian-les-Bains > Saint-Laurent-du-Pont

The top 10 of today's bunch sprint was as follows:

1/ Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - 4h47'24" (39,98 km/h)
2/ Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia)
3/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)
4/ Steve Chainel (Bbox Bouygues Telecom)
5/ Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale)
6/ Christian Knees (Team Milram)
7/ Stephan Denifl (Cervélo TestTeam)
8/ Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale)
9/ Arkaitz Duran Aroca (Footon-Servetto)
10/ Julien El Fares (Cofidis)

General classification

Alberto Contador (Astana) announced yesterday he wouldn't ask his team to work for him to defend his yellow jersey. Since he arrived 34th in the first group he didn't lose any time and thus remains the leader in the general classification where Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) and Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) enter the top 10:

1/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - 4h55'58"
2/ Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia) - +00'02"
3/ Janez Brajkovic (Team Radioshack) - +00'05"
4/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +00'10"
5/ Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) - +00'12"
6/ Rémi Pauriol (Cofidis) - +00'12"
7/ Paul Martens (Rabobank) - +00'13"
8/ Jérôme Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) - +00'14"
9/ Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) - +00'14"
10/ Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - +00'15"

Classification by points

Thanks to his 3th place in this first stage, Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) climbs up to the first place in the classification by points and will thus wear the green jersey in tomorrow's stage from Annonay to Bourg-Saint-Andéol.

1/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - 38 points
2/ Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) - 32 points
3/ Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) - 26 points
4/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - 25 points
5/ Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) - 25 points
6/ Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia) - 22 points
7/ Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) - 22 points
8/ Janez Brajkovic (Team Radioshack) - 20 points
9/ Christian Knees (Team Milram) - 19 points
10/ Steve Chainel (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 18 points

King of the Mountains classification

Thanks to his presence in the leading group of the day, Matthieu Ladagnous takes the first place of the King of the Mountains classification:

1/ Matthieu Ladagnous (Française des Jeux) - 9 points
2/ Cyril Gautier (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 8 points
3/ Kevin Seeldrayers (Quick Step) - 4 points
4/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - 3 points
5/ Oscar Pujol (Cervélo Test Team) - 3 points

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium du Dauphiné 2010 | Criterium du Dauphiné | UCI ProTour

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