Great to see Nibali has something left in those legs after a tough Giro. Hopefully the sprinters won't be able to rob him from the GC via bonus seconds.
It is not as clouded as yesterday, but we still have wind between 35-40 km/h
The morning breakaway is Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Topsport Vlaanderen), Luca Sterbini (Bardiani), Andreas Schillinger (Bora) and Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis).
The breakaway get just under 6 minutes, over the first two climbs and up to the intermediate sprint in Medernach.
From there a lot of teams work together to bring the distance down, Orica most active with 5 riders.
40 km left 3’09” - 30 km left 1’33” - 15 km 1’09
Over the top of the final hill the breakaway gets caught.
The Astana train is looking great, with Nibali in front, but then a Katusha lead-out rider swings left, cutting Boom of from Nibali’s wheel. Again the Astana train is a mess.
Daryl Impey wins in Manternach, Tosh Van der Sande 2nd and Moreno Hofland 3rd.
Evaluation:
Overall:
This was the 4th season victory by 31 years South African Daryl Impey including both Südafrikanische Meisterschafts.
The positive surprise today was Lotto Soudal’s Tosh Van der Sande not considered a top 10 favorite a great stage from him. Less than a wheel length from a win.
All the top 10 favorite teams got a rider in top 10, only Astana might be a bit disappointed with top favorite Andrea Guardini 9th.
Astana:
GC wise a good day, Vincenzo still in the lead.
On stage level might say Katusha spoiled the fun, but can’t accept to miss those sprints again and again.
The rider in the hot-seat is changing fast today, Sepulveda 9’54, Voeckler 9’53, Sánchez 9’51, Zubeldia 9’47.
The first major improvement is Maxime Monfort - Lotto Soudal with 9’41 an impressive time from the Belgian veteran.
Still less than half way through the scheduled we get another unexpected great time, young Danish Søren Kragh Andersen from Giant – Alpecin with new best 9’37.
Søren Kragh is sitting in the hot-seat for a very long time, his time looking better and better, but good things don’t last and he is beaten with stunning 23” by stage favorite Rohan Dennis, new best 9’13.
After that only two rider are better than Kragh, Rafał Majka with 9’35 and Jonathan Castroviej with 9’27 but today Rohan Dennis was in a league of his own, he wins the prologue.
Evaluation:
Overall:
Today huge surprises was Rafał Majka comming 3rd, the best of the favorites for the overall win, and Søren Kragh Andersen coming 4th. If this shows the form Rafał Majka is in right now, he will be a beast in the mountains.
The most negative was stage favorite Tejay Van Garderen 17th, seemingly way below normal standards. Also top 5 favorite Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff) way way below par as 48th.
A look at the times from the top 10 media favorites to win Critérium du Dauphiné:
Rafał Majka
Tinkoff
+00:22
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Team Sky
+00:28
Alberto Contador Velasco
Tinkoff
+00:31
Tejay Van Garderen
BMC Racing Team
+00:32
Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas
Movistar Team
+00:33
Tanel Kangert
Astana Pro Team
+00:35
Rui Alberto Costa
Lampre-Merida
+00:38
Jakob Fuglsang
Astana Pro Team
+00:42
Bauke Mollema
Trek - Segafredo
+00:45
Robert Gesink
Team LottoNL - Jumbo
+00:48
Astana:
Based on the fact that Tanel Kangert had a good stage, it is decided that he will be shared captain.
Stage/CG
1
Rohan Dennis
BMC Racing Team
9'13
2
Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas
Movistar Team
+ 14
3
Rafał Majka
Tinkoff
+ 22
4
Søren Kragh Andersen
Team Giant - Alpecin
+ 24
5
Tiago Machado
Team Katusha
s.t.
6
Maxime Monfort
Lotto Soudal
+ 28
7
Simon Geschke
Team Giant - Alpecin
s.t.
8
Beñat Intxausti Elorriaga
Team Sky
s.t.
9
Patrick Bevin
Cannondale Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Adrien Petit
Direct Energie
s.t.
Spoiler
24
Tanel Kangert
Astana Pro Team
+00:35
43
Andriy Grivko
Astana Pro Team
+00:41
49
Jakob Fuglsang
Astana Pro Team
+00:42
84
Oleg Zemlyakov
Astana Pro Team
+00:52
111
Gatis Smukulis
Astana Pro Team
+00:59
129
Davide Malacarne
Astana Pro Team
+01:03
162
Valerio Agnoli
Astana Pro Team
+01:14
167
Paolo Tiralongo
Astana Pro Team
+01:18
Points
1
Rohan Dennis
BMC Racing Team
20
2
Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas
Movistar Team
17
3
Rafał Majka
Tinkoff
15
Team: BMC Racing Team
Young: Søren Kragh Andersen - Team Giant - Alpecin
1/6-5/6 2016 Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg 2.HC
5/6-12/6 2016 Critérium du Dauphiné
5/6-12/6 2016 Critérium du Dauphiné
