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Criterium du Dauphiné stage 1: Veilleux attacks from the gun to ride to victoryCriterium du Dauphine logo 2011.jpeg

Criterium du Dauphiné stage 1: Veilleux attacks from the gun to ride to victory

Canadian rider spends the whole day out at the front and is stongest at the business end
by dave atkinson
Sun, Jun 02, 2013 19:40
3

David Veilleux of Europcar took the spoils on a short-but-tough stage 1 of the Criterium du Dauphiné, attacking from the gun to spend a day in the lead and tomorrow in the leader's jersey.

Veilleux was joined by Thomas Damuseau (Argos - Shimano), Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne - Séché) and Ricardo Garcia (Euskaltel - Euskadi) and the quertet quickly built up a big lead; with 40km covered their advantage was over ten minutes. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma - Quickstep) went off the front of the peloton in an attampt to bridge and put his time trialling skills to good use, quickly riding to within a few minutes of the leaders.

Over the first-category Col du Corbier the lead group splintered and Veilleux struck out alone, leaving Damuseau and Garcia behind and Bideau, caught by Martin, further down the road. As the distance to the finish decreased it looked increasingly likely that Veilleux would have the legs to stay out, and so it proved. The Canadian took the tape in Champery almost two minutes up on the main field, which had caught the rest of the escapees on the final climb. Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma - Quickstep) took second ahead of the bunch led by Tom Jelte Slagter.

Stage and overall standing

1. VEILLEUX David               TEAM EUROPCAR             3h 17' 35"
2. MEERSMAN Gianni              OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP    +1' 56"
3. SLAGTER Tom Jelte            BLANCO PRO CYCLING TEAM    +1' 57"
4. PORTE Richie                 SKY PROCYCLING             st
5. FROOME Christopher           SKY PROCYCLING
6. MADRAZO Angel                MOVISTAR TEAM
7. FUGLSANG Jakob               ASTANA PRO TEAM
8. VALVERDE Alejandro           MOVISTAR TEAM
9. GALLOPIN Tony                RADIOSHACK LEOPARD
10. KONIG Leopold               TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA
11. CONTADOR Alberto            TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF
12. VICHOT Arthur               FDJ
13. BARGUIL WARREN              TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO
14. ROGERS Michael              TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF
15. BAGOT Yoann                 COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS
16. VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen       LOTTO-BELISOL
17. SANCHEZ Samuel              EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
18. KOREN Kristijan             CANNONDALE
19. IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Gorka    EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
20. TAARAMAE Rein               COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS
Criterium du Dauphiné 2013
Criterium du Dauphiné
Dave Atkinson

Dave is a founding father of road.cc, having previously worked on Cycling Plus and What Mountain Bike magazines back in the day. He also writes about e-bikes for our sister publication ebiketips. He's won three mountain bike bog snorkelling World Championships, and races at the back of the third cats.

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Colin Peyresourde | 11 years ago
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Breakaways are always about chancing your luck. If you don't try you can't succeed. Also, it helps if you are a 'nobody' since the teams won't care about pulling you in to defend their GC contender.

It is always about the right confluence of events: parcours, crashes, weather, team motivations and how good a riders legs are. It has always been that way.

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roberto retardo | 11 years ago
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Most breaks fail; this one makes it all the way.

David Veilleux's win at the Dauphine is a demonstration of what it takes to make it to the finish line first. Most breaks at the Pro Tour level are doomed to failure due to the institutional factors of the modern pro cycling race. Most of the escapados are neo-pros, locals, publicity-break riders or guys who don't have the legs or the will to make it all the way but at least get to ride at the front for a few hours until swept up when the "real racing" starts. Race radio, mobile devices, team discipline, wattage science have created the nearly inevitable endgame we see in most modern races. The success of a break is to a large degree dependent on the organization of the chase, but at the same time it takes a special dose of strength and character to not sit up or flame out as the peloton closes in. DV got lucky as the chase was mainly really after Tony Martin, but also he rode as hard as was required to seal the deal, putting out one of the best rides of the season and showing the rest of the peloton and cycling fans around the world that it still can be done. Bravo!

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Colin Peyresourde | 11 years ago
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Is this on telly?

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