Luke Durbridge of Team Orica GreenEdge wins the opening stage of the Criterium Du Dauphine 2012
Luke Durbridge of Team Orica GreenEdge bagged an important victory during the opening prologue stage of the Criterium Du Dauphine.
The Australian restricted the pre-race favourite Bradley Wiggins during the 5.7 kilometre stage and crossed the finish line in an impressive time of 6 minutes and 38 seconds.
Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky Procycling also rode brilliantly during the event but could not match the likes of his Australian opponent.
Wiggins fell one second short of his Australian opponent and had to settle for the second spot while Andriy Grivko of Team Astana and Carlos Barredo of Team Rabobank finished at the second, the third and the fourth positions in the respective order.
Tony Martin of Team Omega Pharma-Quick Step finished five second behind at the fifth spot while Simon Gerrans, Paul Martens, Sylvain Chavanel, Cadel Evans and Andrey Amador achieved the next five spots.
The 21-year-old was over the moon after registering an important victory and noted that the racing conditions ideally suited his capabilities.
He briefed, “I’m speechless, I was lucky with the wind and the rain and it could have gone either way”.
“Sometimes you just need some luck. Wearing the yellow jersey at the Dauphine? I’ll take that. It’s going to take a while for it to sink in”.
Wiggins was content with his second place finish and the narrow time margin enables him to target the overall classifications at the race.
"I'm happy enough to finish second but it's about the whole week. I couldn't have asked for better today," Wiggins noted.
"It's always the same with prologues. With riders going three hours apart there's always different conditions”.
“The wind changed massively today. Some guys had disadvantages on the course elsewhere at the start and also advantages”.
Luke Durbridge of Team Orica GreenEdge, Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky Procycling and Andriy Grivko of Team Astana were the top three riders at the point’s classifications with a total number of 15, 12 and 10 points to in their back pocket.
Luke Durbridge of Team Orica GreenEdge, Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky Procycling and Anthony Roux of Team Fdj-Bigmat were the top three young riders during the race.
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