2018 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 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
Team Sky rule time trial\nBy Clara Beard
Team Sky rampaged the team time trial at the 70th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné, winning by 37 seconds ahead of BMC in the 35-km long stage 3 from Pont-de-Vaux to Louhans-Châteaurenaud with a time of 36:33.
The effort brought Michal Kwiatkowski back in to the overall lead, taking the yellow-blue jersey off the back of Daryl Impey (Michelton-Scott), who lost seven places and now sits in eighth place, 54 seconds back.
“It’s been a fantastic moment to ride the team time trial with the yellow-blue jersey,” Impey said after the stage. “I’ve felt very proud. If you told me I’d come to the Dauphiné and I’d be in this jersey one day, I would have taken it, so I’m happy. I would have loved to keep the jersey but we’ve done our best and that’s all we could ask for. Sky had an exceptional day. They got everything together. We had a good ride as well. We went as fast as we could. We didn’t make any mistake. But Sky has all world class time trialist in one team. They knew they’d beat us today. But we’ll come to the Tour de France with a stronger team, time trial wise and let’s hope we can beat Sky in July.”
Team Sky have stacked the top four placings, with Kwiatkowski three seconds ahead of Italian time trial champion and teammate, Gianni Moscon (Team Sky). Spanish champion, Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) is third, nine seconds in arrears.
“Today was just perfect,” Moscon said. “We had a really smooth ride as a team. It’s been a very nice team performance. We paced very well on the climbs. It was simply perfect. It’s the best TTT I’ve ever done. For sure I’m really happy. I’m here to support G [Geraint Thomas] and Kwiato to try and bring home the overall victory. We have a super strong team here. If we commit together, we can make it. I’d like to stay up in GC as long as possible as well but it depends on how the race goes.”
Tomorrow marks the first real test in the mountains. It may start off quiet, but this 181 kilometre stage packs in three massive climbs at the tail end including the col du Mont Noir, a HC categorized climb that is 17.5 kilometres long and averages almost seven percent.
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.
