The main facts of the 2nd stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 were several abandons and a 4 rider strong breakaway. The efforts of this group in the end however only served Blel Kadri to take several points for the King of the Mountains classification (this allowed him to take the lead in this classification) since all riders of this group were caught up with by the peloton at about 5 kilometers from the finish. In the end, a bunch sprint decided the stage victory and this sprint was won by Daniel Moreno.

The summary of stage 2/ Lamastre > Saint-Félicien of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012

The Col de Montivernoux (the climb actually continued till the top of the Mont Gerbier de Jonc), the Col de Clavière and the Col de Lalouvesc were the main climbs of the 2nd stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 between Lamastre and Saint-Félicien today (in addition to these 3 2nd category climbs, the riders also climbed the Col de Rochepaule of the 3rd and the Col de Fontaille of the 4th category).

Several attempts right from the start, including a big breakaway of 10 riders in which we saw no one else than the leader of the race, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), all remained without success and the main race facts thus only arrived at kilometer 39. First of all with Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ BigMat) abandoning the race after his crash yesterday. In this same crash, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) also got hurt and he ended yesterday's stage at the last position at 23'54" and even though we thought he had a broken rib, an X-ray at the hospital last night showed that it were "only" some contusions and the Spanish rider thus started the stage early this afternoon and finished it as well.

The second interesting race fact, almost at the same time, was the attack of Christophe Kern (Team Europcar), Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale), Cayetano José Sarmiento (Liquigas-Cannondale) and David Moncoutié (Cofidis) and those were the riders who really managed to create a gap. At kilometer 50 their gap was already at 3'35".

While Blel Kadri takes the points on top of the Col de Montivernoux, the four leading riders continue to grow their gap, up to 3'45" at kilometer 82.5.

The second abandon of the day was the one of the Champion of The Netherlands, Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team), who declared on Twitter last night that he crashed without much damage but that this prevented him from getting back into the rhythm in yesterday's stage.

Kadri continues to grab some points for the King of the Mountains classification on the Col de Clavière while Juan José Haedo (Saxo Bank) is indicated to be the next rider to abandon.
Led by Team Sky of race leader Bradley Wiggins the gap continues to go down and when Rémi Pauriol (FDJ BigMat) and Brice Feillu (Saur-Sojasun) start the chase, joined by Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar) and Mikael Chérel (AG2R La Mondiale), Blel Kadri takes another 10 points on top of the Col de Lalouvesc, the most difficult climb of today's stage.

In the descente of this climb, the 4 chasing riders are taken back by the peloton and the gap on the 4 leading riders is down to 35 seconds.

In Saint-Félicien, close to the finish line (before a final loop around the city), at about 25 kilometers from the finish, the gap is slightly up again to 40 seconds and based on an attack by Wesley Sulzberger (Orica-GreenEDGE), 5 riders start the chase: next to the Australian rider this group was made up of Steve Morabito (BMC Racing Team), Kévin Reza (Team Europcar), Anthony Roux (FDJ BigMat) and Maxime Médérel (Saur-Sojasun). While most of these riders were taken back just after the top of the last climb of the day, the Col de Fontaille, Anthony Roux decides to continue his efforts and join the 4 leading riders at about 6 kilometers from the finish. When they get together, Roux immediately decides to attack and he's followed only by Blel Kadri, the 3 other leading riders are being taken back by the peloton.
On top of the last climb, Christophe Kern took the points just before they were taken back, ahead of Blel Kadri (2 points).

The new leading duo doesn't last for long however and all efforts by Anthony Roux have thus been for nothing. At 5 kilometers from the finish, the next rider to try a solo attack is Mikael Chérel, but he's also taken back at 3 kilometers from the finish ...

In the last kilometer Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) tries to go for victory in a solo attempt but Daniel Moreno gets back on him with the whole peloton and the Spanish rider in the end manages to win the bunch sprint. After two Australian victories, today was a victory for a Spanish rider in this 64th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné.

The general classification remains almost unchanged, but today's breakaway allowed Blel Kadri to take the polka dot jersey.

The classifications of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 after the 2nd stage

The classification of the 2nd stage Lamastre > Saint-Félicien

Here's the top 10 of this stage:

1/ Daniel Moreno (Katusha Team) - 4h02'38"
2/ Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun)
3/ Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan)
4/ Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale)
5/ Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol)
6/ Luis Léon Sanchez (Rabobank)
7/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team)
8/ Janez Brajkovic (Astana)
9/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky)
10/ Thomas Voeckler (Team Europcar)

The general classification

Changes are rather limited in the top 5 of the general classification after this second stage:

1/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 4h34'04"
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'01"
3/ Andriy Grivko (Astana) - +0'02"
4/ Carlos Barredo (Rabobank)
5/ Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - +0'04"

Points classification

Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) remains the leader of the points classification, closely followed by Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan):

1/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 41 points
2/ Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan) - 36 points
3/ Julien Simon (Saur-Sojasun) - 35 points
4/ Daniel Moreno (Katusha Team) - 33 points
5/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 24 points

King of the Mountains classification

Blel Kadri thus takes the polka dot jersey of the King of the Mountains classification, ahead of Giovanni Bernaudeau (Team Europcar) - who took this jersey in yesterday's breakaway but was having difficulties to keep up with the peloton in the final part of today's stage - for only one point:

1/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - 36 points
2/ Giovanni Bernaudeau (Team Europcar) - 35 points
3/ Christophe Kern (Team Europcar) - 31 points
4/ Nicolas Edet (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 28 points
5/ David Moncoutié (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne) - 28 points

Once he picked up his polka dot jersey, Blel Kadri commented: The distinctive jersey is one of the things you like to get when you are in a breakaway. Of course, I would have preferred crossing the finish line first but this jersey is a great reward. When I am at the front of the race, I always start thinking about the victory. I knew it would not be easy today but with riders like Christophe Kern and David Moncoutie it seemed to be possible. We got on well with each other and we have done our best. Unfortunately, we didn't succeed but I'm happy with what I did today. When I saw the hidden gradient downhill part and the unfavourable wind at the top of the penultimate climb I thought it was going to be hard but we had to give it a try.

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

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