Cycling: Team Sky's Christopher Froome won the final stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné today, securing overall victory as well. With another impressive performance, the 30-year-old snatched the yellow jersey from Tejay van Garderen (BMC), who had started the race as the overall leader.
After the first half of this year's Criterium du Dauphiné was rather restrained and lacking in highlights, the last three stages saw the hoped-for gripping exchange of blows between the strong class riders in the field. Last year's Tour winner Vicenzo Nibali (Astana), as well as Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and Chris Froome (Sky) were allowed to put on the jersey of the leader - in the end it was the Brit who, ten seconds ahead of Van Garderen, took the top of the overall ranking.
The fifth stage of the Dauphiné was awaited with great excitement last Thursday: The stage from Digne-les-Bains to Pra Loup was an exact blueprint of the 17th stage of this year's Tour de France and thus the ultimate test for the riders who are calculate the chances of winning the day or the overall ranking there as well. In the end, Romain Bardet (ag2r-La Mondiale) celebrated there after attacking on the descent of the Col d'Allos and was able to save his lead to the finish. With this move he surprised his competitors in the field - so whether the tactic will work a second time on the tour in July is questionable. Froome, Van Garderen and Intxausti also showed strong performances - Nibali had to tear down on the last climb. Whether he was actually at the end of his strength or just didn't want to exhaust himself completely, we will probably only find out in July. Anyway, at the end of the day, American Van Garderen secured the yellow jersey.
On the following day, however, the 2014 Tour winner struck back: Although Nibali had to admit defeat to Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) in the final, he was able to get the leader's jersey from Van Garderen - Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) also gave up on the 183km Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur gave a sign of life to Villard-de-Lans after having been more reserved the previous days. The Spaniard finished third while Froome lost a lot of time.
On the following days, however, it was the hour of the Briton: First, on Saturday, he won the extremely demanding queen's stage with no fewer than six categorized mountains ahead of Van Garderen, who took back the yellow jersey from Nibali. So everything looked like a duel on the last day of the Criterium du Dauphiné: this morning Van Garderen was still at the top of the overall standings, 18 seconds ahead of Froome. However, the latter proved to be irresistible today: Even though Van Garderen fought back with all his might and at times desperately tried to hold onto the Brit's rear wheel, he ultimately had to admit defeat: he lost 27 seconds to day winner Froome, who secured overall victory.
In any case, the top riders seem to be prepared for the upcoming tour: while Froome and Van Garderen certainly showed the strongest performances, the competitors also made a good impression. Alejandro Valverde finished 3th, 12:9 behind, with Nibali 4:32 in 12th.
Appreciation Criterium du Dauphiné 2015
[easy table th=“0″]1.,Christopher Froome,GBr,Sky,30:59:02
2.,Tejay Van Garderen,USA,BMC,00:00:10
3th,Rui Costa,POR,Lampre-Merida,00:01:16
4., Benat Intxausti, SPA, Movistar, 00:01:21
5.,Simon Yates,GBr,Orican-GreenEdge,00:01:33
6.,Romain Bardet,FRA,ag2r-La Mondiale,00:02:05
7.,Daniel Martin,IRL,Cannondale-Garmin,00:02:52
8.,Joaquim Rodriguez,SPA,Katusha,00:03:06
9.,Alejandro Valverde,SPA,Movistar,00:03:12
10., Andre Talansky, USA, Cannondale-Garmin, 00:04:17
[/easy table]
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