The prologue of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 took place in the streets of Grenoble today. Although some heavy rain was forecasted for this afternoon, it only showed up briefly, even though it kept on threatening during the whole individual race against the clock.
Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE), who was among the first riders to leave, quickly clocked a reference time and there was no single rider leaving after him who improved this time.

With this victory, the Australian rider logically takes the yellow jersey (with a bleu line) and the green jersey but also the white jersey since the young rider of the Orica-GreenEDGE team is only 21 years old.

The summary of the prologue of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012

It was 11.40 this morning when the Dutch rider Lieuwe Westra of the Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team was the first to go find the finish line after 5.7 kilometers and 5 turns (of which 2 U-turns) in the streets of the city of Grenoble (see the article Critérium du Dauphiné 2012: the race route on Google Maps/Earth, the profiles and the time- and route schedules to get to know all details about the race route of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012).
He finished in 6'45"97 and thus became the first temporary leader of this time trial. Not for long however because the Spanish rider Carlos Barredo (Rabobank) who started 4th, 3 minutes after him, improved this time with 4 seconds. Andriy Grivko (Astana) who started 19th takes off a tiny fraction of a second, 12 hundredth, to take the place of provisional leader.

The Ukrainian doesn't hold this position for a long time either because the Australian Champion of the time trial discipline, Luke Durbridge started 7 minutes later and takes off 3 seconds of the reference time.

After him no single other rider manages to improve this reference time and the Australian rider thus logically becomes the winner of this time trial and first rider to wear the distinctive jerseys. He wasn't so sure to win at that time though because behind him there were still some big names to start from the ramp in the Avenue Jean Perrot.

Tony Martin, the current World Champion time trial failed at 5 seconds behind the Australian, just like the compatriot and team mate of Durbridge, Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE), and Paul Martens (Rabobank). Interesting to mention were the good time of Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) at 6 seconds from the winner, in the same time as Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and the fact that Andy Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan) still doesn't seem to have improved his time trial skills because he disappointed at 29 seconds behind Durbridge (102nd).

The only rider who seemed to be able to take the title from Durbridge was the last winner of the Critérium du Dauphiné, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and the wait thus started to see whether this time trial specialist would beat the best time. Finishing 1 second behind the Australian rider, he doesn't lose much time but he thus didn't win this prologue!

The classifications of the prologue of the Critérium du Dauphine 2012

Here's the top 10 of the stage classification which of course is also the top 10 of the general classification:

1/ Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 6'38"62
2/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 6'39"97 / +0'01"
3/ Andriy Grivko (Astana) - 6'41"33 / +0'03"
4/ Carlos Barredo (Rabobank) - 6'41"45
5/ Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 6'43"38 / +0'05"
6/ Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 6'43"65
7/ Paul Martens (Rabobank) - 6'43"95
8/ Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 6'44"30 / +0'06"
9/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 6'44"32
10/ Andrey Amador (Movistar Team) - 6'45"18 / +0'07"

The photos of the prologue of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012

The photos are available in the photo section Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 : the prologue in Grenoble ...

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 | Criterium du Dauphiné

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