2019 Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 2 Results & Recap
Stage 2 of the 2019 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
Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) took victory on stage two of the Critérium du Dauphiné, outsprinting his breakaway companion Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) after 180 kilometres of a testing parcours. The two riders finished just barely ahead of the GC favorites, where Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) won the reduced field sprint for third place.
Teuns’ win has bumped the Belgian into the yellow jersey. The 27-year-old is ahead of Dan Martin (UAD) by three seconds. Fuglsang is third, a further 20 seconds behind.
“I’ve had to wait for almost two years to finally get a victory,” Teuns said at the press conference. “It’s also a very nice one. It makes me very happy. From the start, it was a crazy stage with a big breakaway. It was full gas all the way. The peloton had to chase on a very hard pace. When the last breakaway riders got pulled back, I saw many guys were tired and I felt there was a possibility to do something and take my opportunity. In the last steep climb, I made a difference with Guillaume Martin who was a very good companion until the finish. He was the strongest uphill. I’m glad I could finish it off in a man-to-man sprint after he surprised me in the last corner. I had to go full gas to go over him. It’s a dream come true for me to be the leader of such a nice race like the Dauphiné.”
On a challenging day that featured eight categorized climbs, 13 riders initially broke off the front of the pack on the first climb. They included: Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott), Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale), Julian Alaphilippe and Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Emanuel Buchmann and Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Ruben Fernandez (Movistar), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), Carl Fredrik Hagen (Lotto-Soudal), Alessandro De Marchi (CCC) and Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb).
Team Ineos quickly took control of the pace setting and kept a close eye on the breakaway. Because of threats like Dumoulin and Alaphillippe, they only allowed a maximum advantage of 1’50” over the duration of the stage.
Almost 100km into the stage, Cavagna broke up the rhythm of the break with several attacks. Cosnefroy, Alaphilippe, Hagen and De Marchi followed and eventually, the original breakaway reformed. Dumoulin countered on the côte de la Baraque and only Gaudu, Izagirre and Buchmann could respond, the rest of the break quickly fell back into the peloton. However, the remains of the break couldn’t hold off the pace in the field, and it all came back together with 30 km to go.
New counter attacks came from what was left of the field, which created a new group of 12, including Gilbert and Petr Vakoc (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Serge Pauwels and Pawel Bernas (CCC), Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ), Chérel (AG2R-La Mondiale), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Darwin Atapuma (Cofidis), Rob Power (Sunweb) and Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin).
“It was a really hard stage, not only because of the rhythm and the terrain but also the rain and the cold,” Lutsenko said at the press conference. “I rode to help Jakob [Fulgsang] who is racing here for GC. We had to close on the breakaway riders. I’m happy to get the green jersey. Maybe tomorrow I’ll take it easy and I’ll work for the GC with Jakob but personally, I’m here to prepare for the Tour de France.”
On the final climb, Teuns and Martin took off and the race situation continued to reshuffle behind them in the closing kilometres.
Race favorites Chris Froome and Wout Poels (Ineos), Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Jakob Fuglsang and Lutsenko (Astana), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Michael Woods (EF) and Vakoc became the new chasers, but couldn’t seal the deal and finished just a handful of seconds behind the duo at the finish.
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