2017 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2017 Critérium du Dauphiné is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Bouwman wins in Tullins
Koen Bouwman claimed the first pro victory of his young career Tuesday, outsprinting his breakaway companions to take the stage 3 win of the Critérium du Dauphiné for his Lotto-NL Jumbo team.
“I still can’t believe it,” Bouwman said after the race. “My girlfriend, my parents and all my friends are here. It’s a really big race. I can’t believe it. The goal was to go in the break because I’m not a rider that can go with the best climbers or sprinters. We had a strong break, everyone was pulling very hard. I told Alexey Vermeulen that I felt strong and he started pulling in the front for me. In the end I made it, so I’m happy.”
Thomas de Gendt safely retained his lead in the overall classification at the end of the 184 km stage, 48 seconds ahead of Axel Domont and 1’09” in front of Diego Ulissi heading into tomorrow’s 23.5 km time trial.
“For us it was an easy day,” De Gendt said. “For us it was perfect. We just had to make sure the break didn’t get more than six minutes.”
De Gendt remains open about his chances to keep yellow after tomorrow’s stage. He’ll have stiff competition, but still has a lead of 48 seconds to his closest competitor on GC.
“Sometimes I can do a good time trial, sometimes not,” he said. “Tomorrow I think it will be close, I keep it by a few seconds or lose it by a few seconds.”
How it transpired
The race convoy left Le Chambon-sur-Lignon under partly cloudy skies and temperatures of 11C. At just two kilometres into the stage, Quentin Pacher (Delko Marseille Provence KTM), Alexey Vermeulen (LottoNL-Jumbo), Bryan Nauleau (Direct Energie), Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Evaldas Šiškevicius (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) and Koen Bouwman (LottoNL-Jumbo) escaped up the road. The six riders quickly gained more than two minutes by the time they were seven kilometres into the race.
At km 27, the time gap between the breakaway riders and the peloton was up to 4 minutes and 45 seconds as slight drizzle began to fall.
By the time the leaders saw the first climb, the Côte de Saint-Félicien, their lead was up to six minutes. Bouwman was first across to pick up the max points, as he would be over each king of the mountain summit on stage 3.
Through the feed zone, we saw the gap came down ever so slightly to 5’25”, displaying the peloton’s confidence in their abilities to reel the break back for the sprint. FDJ and Cofidis, who swapped jobs at front of the peloton for most of the race, set the tempo.
When the breakaway saw 55 kilometers to go the advantage began to drop to 3 minutes and 30 seconds when Dimension Data and Katusha started to amass at the front as well.
Echelons began to form as the wind began to pick up considerably. The peloton was taken over by FDJ again, who brought the gap down even more to 1 minute 47 seconds with 17.5 km to go.
The kilometres fell away and it looked more and more like the breakaway would maintain their lead to the finish. With 1 km to go, Vermeulen led it out for his teammate Bouwman who sealed the deal with a win for the Dutch team.
Tomorrow is the 23 km time trial and the first time we’ll see the emergence of the GC contenders come to the helm. The race against the clock with certainly shake up the overall GC, but it is possible that De Gendt could hold on to his yellow jersey for yet another day if he puts in a good ride.\n
Get our full coverage of the Critérium du Dauphiné and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
