2018 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 4 Results & Recap
Stage 4 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
Alaphilippe wins in Lans-en-Vercors
After 181 kilometres of racing, Julian Alaphilippe won an uphill sprint against Dan Martin in Lans-en-Vercors. Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) finished in third.
“I’m super happy,” Alaphilippe said after the stage. “The Dauphiné is a very competitive race. It’s never easy to win here. I wasn’t far behind [Daryl] Impey on stage 1. Today, it was the only stage win I could target really. Yesterday in the hotel room, I told Bob [Jungels] that I seriously wanted to go for it. I rode flat out in the last five kilometres. It was burning in my legs. At the end, I gave everything. Now I’ll try to help Bob until Sunday evening because I know it’ll be more complicated for me. I’m a punchy rider but not a pure climber.”
Gianni Moscon took the yellow-blue jersey from his teammate, Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) after finishing in ninth, eight seconds behind. The Italian also leads the best young rider competition. Starting tomorrow’s stage, Team Sky has three in the top three on GC, all within six seconds of each other.
“AG2R tried to make the race a bit hard for the stage win,” Moscon said. “We took the good positions back for our team. We rode our pace from the bottom of the last climb to defend the jersey. We still have the yellow-blue jersey in the team, so it’s fine. Today it was the first big block of mountains but we still have a lot of climbs to come. I don’t know what I can do in GC. My role here is to try and help Kwiato and G [Geraint Thomas], mainly G for the GC. Alaphilippe was the strongest for winning the stage in this relatively short finale but Geraint is the strongest for winning the overall. My role will not change despite having the jersey. I didn’t expect to lead the race, I will enjoy wearing this jersey tomorrow for sure but G and Kwiato are the two guys who can win this race.”
At 82 kilometres, when the col du Mont Noir hit, Dario Cataldo (Astana), Lukas Pöstleberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jens Keukeleire (Lotto-Soudal) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) rode away at km 77. They were firstly rejoined by Odd Christian Eiking (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Arnaud Courteille (Vital Concept), and secondly by Simon Clarke (Education First) and Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept) finally formed a break off the front.
Eventually, all the breakaway riders fell back into the reduced peloton, while Cataldo attempted to hold onto his lead. The Italian was caught just 500 meters from the line. His efforts were awarded with the polka dot jersey as the new leader of the mountains classification.
“It wasn’t part of the plan to break away today,” Cataldo said to reporters after the stage. “I remained quietly in the bunch for the whole first part of the race until it became a bit more nervous. The bunch split with GC contenders riding at the front. It was getting hard also for my team-mates who were looking at breaking away. Trying to help them in an acceleration, I found myself at the front almost without willing. Once I was up, I started thinking of the stage victory. The speed of our front group wasn’t high. Had we continued like that, for sure we’d be reabsorbed by the peloton. At half way into the climb, I rode at my own pace. Since no one came with me, I continued solo. I gave everything till the end but it wasn’t enough. With 15km to go, I’ve believed I could win. But just before the last climb, I took some head wind and the tarmac at that point me it very hard to ride. It slowed me down. I realized it’d be hard to maintain my lead up the hill. I fought as much as I could. The polka dot jersey is a little consolation price. I’m happy with it because the Dauphiné is a very important race. I’d like to keep it till the end of the race.”
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