2018 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 1 Results & Recap
Stage 1 of the 2018 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
Daryl Impey (Michelton-Scott) on top in Valence
South African road champion Daryl Impey (Michelton-Scott) won today’s lumpy stage of the Criterium du Dauphine ahead of Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and Patrick Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) at the finish of stage one in Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert.
Impey followed all the right wheels to unleash his attack at the perfect time, showing everyone in the reduced bunch who to look for in the coming days.
"It was a tough day all day,” Impey said at the finish. “Since I woke up this morning, I didn’t feel good. Even in the meeting I said I was not well. During the race, I told Alex Edmondson to ride for himself instead of looking after me. I surprised myself with the big guys. To win at the Dauphiné is great. It’s a big race. got some criticism from people saying he’s done nothing since the start of year [after winning the Tour Down Under and leading the WorldTour series until March]. To get a big win here is something nice. At the Volta Catalunya, I tried hard. In the classics, I didn’t quite go my way. Obviously, coming back for my first race of the second part of the season, it’s a nice confidence booster to win today. I wasn’t feeling good all day. I was kind of struggling all day. When you’re not feeling good, you can’t afford to do any mistake, so I was just hiding all day. In the end, I managed to get a good wheel with the first real big effort I gave. That’s what helped me. Tomorrow, it might be for the pure sprinters. But there’s not a massive field of sprinters here so I can give it a go. Tomorrow, I surprised myself but tomorrow it won’t be easy to surprise anyone."
Impey moves up to second place on GC after his win, two seconds behind Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky). Kwiatkowski's teammate, Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) will stay in the best young rider jersey going into stage 2 – which looks to be quite the same profile as today.
"It was a pretty nervous and quite technical final,” Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) said. “Some part of the circuit was still wet. It was very important to stay in the front. The team protected me very well. Julian Alaphilippe went pretty deep up the hill. I was happy to stay on his wheel. That made the biggest damage I think. There were other sprinters in the bunch but they couldn’t go over. It was already a tough start with 8km uphill. In the last section of 500 metres going a little bit uphill, I was even trying to sprint for the stage victory. But Impey was very impressive in the sprint. I’m happy the stage went like that way."
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