John Degenkolb wins 4th stage, Bradley Wiggins retains yellow jersey in 2011 Criterium du Dauphine
HTC-highroad team’s John Degenkolb won the mass sprint to take the fourth stage of 2011 Criterium du Dauphine in Macon on Thursday, June 9. Bradley Wiggins Hagen maintained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The 22-year-old John covered the distance of 173.5 kilometres in 4 hours, 15 minutes and 41 seconds. Sky Procycling team’s Edvald Boasson was the runner-up while Juan Jose Haedo of Saxo Bank Sungard was in the third place.
After winning the stage, John told the media, "I beat sprinters who were counting on winning today, but that is not a surprise to me. I think that there will be other occasions when they will beat me, but to be faster than them, above all you need a huge
degree of motivation."
Recently, John won second stage in Bayern Rundfahrt and also won Rum um den Henninger Tum. He also won the second stage of Volta ao Algarve.
Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo failed to maintain his pace in the race and grabbed the sixth place while, the race leader, Bradley Wiggins grabbed the 70th spot.
The first breakaway formed after 6 kilometres from the start of the race, which included, Adriano Malori, Jeremy Roy and Leonardo Fabio Duque. Jeremy Roy maintained his pace and quickly joined Adriano Malori of the Lampre-ISD team. Both of them worked together
to built a lead of 4 minutes and 25 seconds.
The peloton managed to catch the pair back in the final 50 kilometres of the race, but the HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervelo team maintained their speed to take lead.
The escapees were caught by the peloton in the final 2 kilometres. In the final circuit, Boasson Hagen opened up the sprint, but he failed to catch the German. Degenkolb crossed the finish line ahead of other cyclists.
Bradley Wiggins took overall lead with the timing of 12 hours, 57 minutes and 18 seconds. Cadel Evans of BMC racing was in second spot with 1 minute and 11 seconds behind Bradley.
Janez Brajkovic of Radioshack finished third with the difference of 1 minute and 21 seconds.
Wiggins said, "As far as the next stages, we will have to see how it pans out. The hardest stage will certainly be on Saturday when we have a final climb that I don't know. For the moment I have the legs for it but tomorrow (Friday) is when we have the real
Dauphine."
The next stage will start in Parc des Oiseaux - Villars-les-Dombes and end in Les Gets. All the riders will cover a distance of 210 kilometres.
Tags: