The prologue in the streets of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne (see The Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth and the route and time schedule for full details about the race route of each of the stages of this Critérium du Dauphiné) which was won yesterday by Lars Boom (Rabobank). In the first stage today, immediately a stage with a mountain top finish, it was Jurgen van den Broeck's (Omega Pharma-Lotto) turn to finish solo on top.
Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) takes over the yellow/bleu leader's jersey from Lars Boom.

The summary of the first stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 - Albertville > Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse

Early this afternoon, all riders came to the start in Albertville, the city where the Olympic Winter Games took place in 1992 (it was thus no surprise to see several photos popping up on Twitter and Facebook this weekend on pages of riders and staff members of the different teams who went to the Olympic Park).

This stage start had a special Olympic thingy since Bradley Wiggins (double gold in 2008 with the individual pursuit and the teams pursuit), Geraint Thomas (gold in 2008 in the teams pursuit) (Team Sky) and Samuel Sanchez (gold medal in 2008 in the men's road race) (Euskaltel-Euskadi) received another medal from the city representatives of the Olympic city.

After several unsuccessful attempts, an attack by Sven Vandousselaere (Omega Pharma-Lotto), who already attacked before in one of the unsuccessful attempts, was at the origin of today's breakaway, in which he was accompanied by Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) and Vincent Jérôme (Team Europcar).

At the foot of the first climb of the day, the Côte de Saint-André after 35 kilometers in the race, their gap was already up to 6 minutes. The several climbs did however make it go down before it got stabilised around 4 minutes.

Leonardo Duque arrives first on top of each of the climbs and he thus becomes the virtual leader in the King of the Mountains classification.

All day long, the Rabobank team of general classification leader Lars Boom controlled the gap with the leading group and while approaching the finish line and the final climb towards Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse, the Dutch team makes the gap go down quite quickly, to one minute at 20 kilometers from the finish. When the riders of Team HTC-Highroad and BMC Racing Team come to help them, the gap really disappears and at about ten kilometers from the finish, the peloton is completely back together.

At 7 kilometers from the finish, it's Kanstantsin Sivtsov's (Team HTC-Highroad) and Jurgen van den Broeck's (Omega Pharma-Lotto) turn to get away from the peloton. They first get company from the French champion Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar), but the two riders see him continue alone towards the finish line. He didn't however count on riders like Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and other favorites who are not afraid of one or more additional climb. A group of about 30 riders, including those favorites, thus comes back on the tri-coloured jersey.

Jurgen van den Broeck however manages to get away from this group once again and continues alone looking for the stage victory. Under the flamme rouge of the last kilometer, only Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha Team) still threatens the victory of the Belgian rider but apparently the Spanish rider of the Russian team attacked too late and doesn't manage to get back on Van den Broeck.

The classifications of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 after the first stage

Rodriguez finished second behind Van den Broeck and ahead of Cadel Evans, Alexandre Vinokourov and Nicolas Roche. Having finished the prologue second at 2 seconds behind Lars Boom yesterday, Alexandre Vinokourov takes over the yellow/blue leader's jerseyin the general classification. He now has a 5 seconds gap on Van den Broeck, 7 seconds on Cadel Evans and 11 seconds on Bradley Wiggins.
Vinokourov also takes the lead in the points classification while Jurgen van den Broeck ends up with 10 points at the same score as Leonardo Duque in the King of the Mountains classification.
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) is for the time being the best young rider with a 11 seconds gap on Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) who took the best young rider's jersey in several races in the past few weeks.

Tomorrow, the second stage will bring the riders of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 from Voiron to Lyon over a distance of 179 kilometers. If you'd like to see all the details of the parcours which ends up on the Côte de la Croix-Rousse in Lyon, you can read the article The Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 race route on Google Maps/Google Earth and the route and time schedule.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium du Dauphiné 2011 | Criterium du Dauphiné

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