Daniel Moreno Fernandez wins the second stage of the Criterium du Dauphine 2012
Daniel Moreno Fernandez of Team Katusha filled his bag with an important victory during the stage two of the Criterium du Dauphine 2012.
The cyclist crossed the finish line in a quickest time of 4 hours, 2 minutes and 38 seconds to occupy the top podium spot.
He completed the 160 kilometre pursuit to Felicien and restricted the race favourites, Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins for the seventh and the ninth positions respectively.
Julien Simon of Team Saur-Sojasun, Tony Gallopin of Team RadioShack-Nissan, Rinaldo Nocentini of Team AG2R La Mondiale and Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Team Lotto Belisol occupied the next four positions.
Moreno was delighted after the stage victory and declared it is as one of his career’s best performance.
He cited, "I'm very happy with this victory. It's one the best of my career together with the stage in 'Vuelta a Espana' and 'Giro del Piemonte'”.
“Some said it was a surprising win for me, but I think I was one of the favourites instead: I'm in a good shape after 'Giro d'Italia', during this season I've already taken two victories and the route was very suitable to my characteristics”.
“In fact, the last climbing before the finishing line was perfect for me: I started my rush with 300 meters to go, and I think it was really the right moment”.
The Spanish professional cyclist opened his 2012 winning account with a first place finish at the GP Miguel Indurain and also succeeded during the stage 4 of the Vuelta a Andalucia 2012.
Daniel also secured 25 UCI points during the race with Julien Simon of Team Saur-Sojasun three points behind at the second spot.
Tony Gallopin of Team RadioShack-Nissan, Rinaldo Nocentini of Team AG2R La Mondiale and Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Team Lotto Belisol holding the third, the fourth and the fifth positions with 20, 18 and 16 points respectively.
Blel Kadri of Team AG2R La Mondiale succeeded during the first four mountains of the race while Christophe Kern of Team Europcar and Daniel Moreno of Team Katusha winning the fifth and the sixth mountain of the race.
Team Sky finished the race at the first spot with Team Saur-Sojasun, Team Rabobank, Team Astana and Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step occupying the next four positions.
Bradley Wiggins is still leading the stage 2 classifications with a minor lead of 1 second over Cadel Evans of Team BMC.
Andriy Grivko of Team Astana, Carlos Barredo of Team Rabobank and Tony Martin of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step achieved the third, the fourth and the fifth positions in the respective order.
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