Cadel Evans wins the stage 1 of the Criterium Du Dauphine 2012
Cadel Evans bagged an important victory during the stage 1 of the Criterium Du Dauphine after his splendid performance during the French event.
He finished the race in a quickest time of 4 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds and occupied the top podium spot.
Jerome Coppel of Team Saur-Sojasun, Andrey Kashechkin of Team Astana, Nacer Bouhanni of Team FDJ-Big Mat and Tony Gallopin of Team RadioShack-Nissan occupied the next four positions.
Cadel wins the Tour de France 2011 and is eyeing the 2012 version of the race as the biggest goal of his 2012 season.
While commenting on the stage victory, Evans briefed to media, “It was a bit of difficult descent, quite narrow”.
“I saw a bit of an opportunity there in the little group in the peloton. Sometimes you see these opportunities and you have to try something”.
“I rode a lot to try and keep the distance on the peloton and that isn’t normally favourable for the finish”.
“It shows that the work I’ve been doing is good but we’ve still got a lot of work to do and some improvements to make before we get to the Tour,” he said after the stage.
Evans bagged 25 important UCI points and topped the point’s classifications at the race with Jerome Coppel of Team Saur-Sojasun holding the second position with 22 points in his back pocket.
Andrey Kashechkin of Team Astana, Nacer Bouhanni of Team FDJ-Big Mat and Tony Gallopin of Team RadioShack-Nissan occupied the next three positions with 20, 18 and 16 points respectively.
Giovanni Bernaudeau of Team Europcar succeeded during the first, the second, the third and the fourth mountain of the race while Markel Irizar of Team RadioShack-Nissan wins the fifth climb.
Nacer Bouhanni of Team FDJ-Big Mat, Tony Gallopin of Team RadioShack-Nissan, Daniele Ratto of Team Liquigas-Cannondale, Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky and Dominik Nerz of Team Liquigas-Cannondale were the top five cyclists on the day.
Bradley Wiggins has now jumped up to the top overall spot after the stage 1 classification with Cadel Evans one second behind at the second spot.
Andriy Grivko of Team Astana, Carlos Barredo of Team Rabobank and Tony Martin of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step are holding the third, the fourth and the fifth positions in the respective order.
Tags: