Crit̩rium du Dauphin̩ РStage 7

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Froome back in business winning the stage whilst Tejay van Garderen leads overall and Simon Yates & Dan Martin in the top 10

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Crit̩rium du Dauphin̩ РStage 7

Stage 7 in the 67th Critérium du Dauphiné has seen another turnaround of events with Chris Froome making it up for the time and morale lost in the past few days. The Kenyan-born winner of the 2013 Tour de France bounced back as a mountain stage winner, ahead of Tejay van Garderen who regained position on top of the overall classification while yellow-blue jersey wearer Vincenzo Nibali lost four minutes in the last twelve kilometers of the race.

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Photo: ©A.S.O./X.Bourgois

Eritrea’s Daniel Teklehaimanot made history being the first African rider to secure the polka dot jersey in such a big race ahead of his first participation to the Tour de France.

145 riders took the start of stage 7, fourteen of them rode away after four kilometres: Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin), Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R-La Mondiale), Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Soudal), Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Tiago Machado (Katusha), Pieter Serry (Etix-Quick Step), Riccardo Zoidl (Trek), Chris Anker Sørensen (Tinkoff-Saxo), Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), Perrig Quémeneur (Europcar), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN) and Björn Thurau (Bora).

It gave Teklehaimanot the opportunity to score more points at the first two King of the Mountain prices and therefore to consolidate his lead in the fight for the polka dot jersey.

26 riders in the lead
Several counter-attacks showcased Pierre Rolland’s great motivation in climbs like col de Tamié where he made a household name for himself in previous editions of the Tour de France. He bridged the gap on his way up to the col de la Forclaz, after which 26 riders were counted in the front group, the highest ranked of them on GC being David De La Cruz (Etixx-Quick).

The 26 escapees at half way into the race were: Nathan Haas (Cannondale-Garmin), Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R-La Mondiale), Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Soudal), Jonathan Castroviejo and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar), Tiago Machado (Katusha), David De La Cruz and Pieter Serry (Etix-Quick Step), Bauke Mollema and Riccardo Zoidl (Trek), Pawel Poljanski and Chris Anker Sørensen (Tinkoff-Saxo), Jarlinso Pantano and Marcel Wyss (IAM Cycling), Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida), Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Dani Navarro, Nicolas Edet and Luis Maté (Cofidis), Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Louis Meintjes and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN), Bartosz Huzarski, José Mendes, Dominic Nerz and Björn Thurau (Bora).

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Navarro on the attack
After they reached a maximum advantage of four minutes at km 75, Team Sky took the command of the peloton up to the col de la Croix-Fry. They brought the deficit of the yellow-blue jersey group below one minute at km 100 but more attacks occurred at the front once Teklehaimanot secured the polka dot jersey for good, providing that he completes the Dauphiné within the time cut.

With 38km to go, Rolland accelerated but Navarro counter-attacked and formed a leading duo with Zoidl. It was the Spaniard’s second attempt after a vain one up the col des Aravis. Castroviejo and Huzarski went in between. Four riders, Navarro, Zoidl, Castroviejo and Huzarski started the final climb at the front but their advantage wasn’t enough to help them stay ahead of the best GC contenders of the day.

With 3.5km to go to Le Bettex and its magnificent view over the Mont Blanc, Froome and Van Garderen took the command. 1.5km before the line, Froome rode away solo but didn’t manage to create a big enough gap so it’s Van Garderen back in the yellow-blue jersey one day after losing it to Nibali and one day before the end of the 67th Critérium du Dauphiné.

Tejay van Garderen: “Extremely happy to be back in yellow”
“I couldn’t be more pleased. Having the yellow jersey with one day to go is great. Team Sky really rode early on for Chris Froome. I was happy that I worked with him. When we were away just the two of us”

“I thought this is perfect but when he accelerated with 1.5km to go, he came with so much speed, there was no way I could follow him but I was hoping that if I’d keep my rhythm I could pull him back. It seemed like the gap staying pretty small but two days ago I was able to close, today I wasn’t able to close it. I’m extremely happy to be back in yellow. The team was a little bit bound out after yesterday but today everyone contributed really well and had a solid ride.”

“18 seconds isn’t much, especially when you think of the time bonus at the finish. We’ve got work ahead of us tomorrow but all we can do is our best. American riders have a rich history in this race and I’m proud to be part of it”.

Froome “I couldn’t be happier. The guys rode out of their skin and buried themselves to make it as hard as possible. On the back of yesterday’s stage – which had a lot of the main contenders in the break – it made sense to do that. That’s one of the beauties of stage racing, you can’t give everything one day and then expect to back it up the next.”

“As I said, I can’t thank my team-mates enough, and it was special to have my wife at the finish. That gave me an added incentive to go hard and see her. Froome also admitted he still has plenty work to do if he is to wrestle the yellow and blue jersey from van Garderen, but is pleased with his condition heading into Sunday’s finale.”

He added: “Tejay has ridden a really good race and BMC did a really good time trial on Tuesday which put almost 30 seconds into us. I still have a bit to make up on him. It’s not an easy stage tomorrow and the race isn’t over until it’s over. We’ll keep fighting all the way ‘til the end. Today was a really good show of where I’m at [heading into the Tour de France]. I’ve still got some work to do, and I’m not at my best yet, but being able to ride a stage like that shows I’m not far off and I’m really happy.”

Simon Yates: “I didn’t have the same good legs as yesterday, that’s for sure. I’ve thought about saving energy since the first climbs but at the end of the day, it’s been a good day. At some stage I got dropped but I managed to come back with the help of my team.”

“It took us some time, for instance with Ivan Santaromita who stayed with me. It was hard. He was giving me food and drinks but there wasn’t much we could do. I was thinking it was the same for everyone. Now I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep the white jersey. The gap to Bardet isn’t very important and I know he’s a warrior. For sure he’ll try something to get the jersey back. But I’ll give my best.”

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STAGE 7
1. Christopher Froome, Team Sky 4:24:17
2. Tejay Van Garderen, BMC Racing Team 0:00:17
3. Louis Meintjes, MTN – Qhubeka 0:00:41
4. Benat Intxausti, Movistar Team
5. Joaquim Rodriguez, Team Katusha 0:00:54
6. Romain Bardet, AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:08
7. Alexis Vuillermoz, AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:15
8. Andrew Talansky, Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:01:25
9. Rui Costa, Lampre-Merida 0:01:34
10. Daniel Navarro, Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:45

11. Simon Yates, Orica GreenEdge 0:01:47
17. Alejandro Valverde, Movistar Team 0:02:03
24. Vincenzo Nibali, Astana Pro Team
47. Peter Kennaugh, Team Sky 0:11:18
51. Adam Yates, Orica GreenEdge
81. Ian Stannard, Team Sky 0:22:52
82. Stephen Cummings, MTN – Qhubeka
115. Jack Bauer, Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:26:51
135. Luke Rowe, Team Sky 30:30

OVERALL
1. Tejay Van Garderen, BMC Racing Team 26:59:27
2. Christopher Froome, Team Sky 0:00:18
3. Benat Intxausti,Movistar Team 0:00:45
4. Rui Costa, Lampre-Merida 0:01:10
5. Simon Yates, Orica GreenEdge 0:01:29
6. Alejandro Valverde, Movistar Team 0:01:40
7. Romain Bardet, AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:45
8. Daniel Martin, Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:02:29
9. Andrew Talansky, Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:02:39
10. Joaquim Rodriguez, Team Katusha 0:02:46
11. Vincenzo Nibali, Astana Pro Team 0:03:05

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