Criterium du Dauphine - Stage 1

[Mellow Velo]

This final climb they are now on will split it up, big time.
Contador 3rd in line.....

 

[Jamsque]

Yeah, Contador isn't defending his jersey at all

Garmin trying to set up David Millar but Bertie is right on his wheel.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Cobo, Martens and Van Winden the crashers.

Kirby just made me eat my half-hearted defence of him by saying that we've been "hoping for" a sprint. I loathe sprints with a passion (though to be fair this is the kind of stage where a sprinter has EARNT their win, what wth this climb so close to the finish, so I don't mind it going to a sprint too much.

 

[Jamsque]

Lots of action at the front of the peloton but Astana are keeping it all in check.

Gautier has 1km from the summit but is about to get caught.

 

[Anonymous]

ok.. stop talking about armstrong.. hes not in this race

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Brajkovic proving our point that the Shack B team will be more entertaining than the A team.

 

[Anonymous]

this is hell.. contadore wins yesterday, radioshack threatening to win today.. all i need now is cadel to parachute onto the course and declare himself president of france and my day is complete

 

[Jamsque]

Footon are at this race? Who knew!

 

[Barrus]

Dumoulin has fallen, thats really a shame

 

[Anonymous]

hmm so the onscreen distances were out by nearly half a kilometre

 

[Anonymous]

Sky on the front.. where the hell did edvald come from..

COME ON GEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[The Sheep]

What a silly sprint

 

[Jamsque]

Downing had to go too early, Bole might get in trouble for shutting the door on that HTC rider.

 

[Anonymous]

Duck it.. brave attempt by Gee

time bonus's?

 

[Mellow Velo]

Menchov in the bus.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Paul Martens fell over a wall on the way down but he's ok. A bit like Ten Dam last July. Sam Dumoulin crashed on the way down too.

Bole from Velits second. Thomas third.

 

[Jamsque]

Menchov in the bus.

Welp, so much for my 'dark horse' prediction.

Still waiting on confirmation of the result...

Here we go.

Bole, Velits, Thomas, Chainel, Riblon.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Menchov has been dire since the Giro last year. He is becoming the new Zulle in terms of terrible race positioning/falling off.

 

[Jamsque]

Thomas moves up to 4th on GC, 10 seconds back, and David Millar creeps in to the top 10.

 

[Anonymous]

Thomas moves up to 4th on GC, 10 seconds back, and David Millar creeps in to the top 10.

thats where he was at the start of the day.

Interesting move by sky, clearly trying to get geraint up the gc, in retrospect if geraint had led out Russ downing, sky probably would have got the stage win, Russ is in good form. But, Gee is looking in really good shape at the moment. all good.

 

[reyan12]

Contador still in yellow!

 

[search]

Interesting move by sky, clearly trying to get geraint up the gc

so you think they didn't know there were no time bonuses?

 

[Jamsque]

thats where he was at the start of the day.

Whoops! I forgot the Dauphine doesn't have bonifications.

 

[AEROisKING]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice velits being pushed NZ commentator didn't even mention it

 

[Anonymous]

so you think they didn't know there were no time bonuses?

well i didnt know if there were, i did ask yesterday, eurosport thought there were, all odd.

Im still surprised the leadout wasnt the other way around. still a cracking ride by gee. Forget wiggins, geraint is going to be sky's british star