Stage 8- Critérium du Dauphiné – June 14, 2014
It was an epic day for Andrew Talansky who came almost out of left field to capture the title at Critérium du Dauphiné in its final stage, defeating Alberto Contador and Chris Froome, the Tour de France giants.
It was a bad day for Chris Froome who had led the Dauphine for 5 days until he crashed on day
Final podium at the Criterium du Dauphine today: Contador, Talansky, and Gallopin
6, and was upset by Alberto Contador who surged ahead of the Kenyan and his entire Sky Team in the ultimate kilometers of the race.
Though Contador missed the overall win by 27 seconds to the American from Garmin-Sharp he showed strength ahead of the Tour de France as he overtook Nibali before the finish line while Froome was struggling four minutes behind his arch-rival and closed the Dauphiné with a disappointing twelfth place overall.
Riding in a lead breakaway, Team Sky’s Mikel Nieve attacked with 3.3 km to go, winning the stage and placing in the top 5 overall.
Nieves (Team Sky) won the stage in Courcheval, and finished in the top 5 overall. (ASO)
23 riders ahead, including Talansky
Following an early attack by Sylvain Chavanel (IAM) in pursuit of the first French victory at this Critérium du Dauphiné, 23 riders rode away after the côte de Domancy on their way up to Megève where they had taken the start: David Lopez, Mikel Nieve, Richie Porte (Sky), Tanel Kangert, Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Dani Navarro, Yoann Bagot (Cofidis), Adam Yates (Orica), Igor Anton, John Gadret (Movistar), Romain Bardet, Alexis Gougeard, Jean-Christoph Péraud (AG2R), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), Jurgen Van den Broeck, Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Kristjan Koren (Cannondale), Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Yuriy Trofimov (Katusha), Ryder Hesjedal, Elia Favilli (Lampre), Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp). Andrew Talansky (Garmin), was also in that group.
The presence of four riders from the top ten overall, Talansky (3rd at 0.39), Van den Broeck, Bardet and Yates, raised the ante that one of these riders could win the overall by the end of the stage.
Contador alone vs team Sky almost complete
Then Team Sky launched a counter-attack in the ascent to col des Saisies and Porte and Westra dropped back.
A group of 18 riders was formed with Chris Froome, Vassil Kiryienka, Danny Pate, Richie Porte, Geraint Thomas (Sky), Vincenzo Nibali, Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), Luis Maté (Cofidis), Mikaël Chérel, Ben Gastauer (AG2R), Sébastien Reichenbach (IAM), Darwin Atapuma (BMC), Dani Moreno (Katusha), Jan Bakelants (OPQS), Wilco Kelderman, Martijn Keizer (Belkin) and Leo König (NetApp).
Courcheval, the finale town of the Criterium du Dauphine today.
Contador was left with no team-mates, and though his Tinkoff-Saxo team was in charge of pacing the main peloton, they gave up after passing through Albertville 50km mark before the finish in front of the ski jumping stadium at Courchevel.
Talansky dethrones Contador
The chasing group looked like coming across to the first one in the Tarentaise valley leading to the two final climbs but Froome and Contador eventually looked at each other and let Nibali go in a smart counter-attack.
However, Jean-Christophe Péraud and Ryder Hesjedal of AG2R-La Mondiale and Garmin-Sharp respectively continued pacing hard at the front at the service of Bardet and Talansky.
At the bottom of the côte de Montagny with 24km to go, Contador attacked Froome and his team-mates riding by himself at the pursuit of virtual leader Talansky.
He was going to miss the overall win by 27 seconds to American Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) but he got another positive sign ahead of the Tour de France as he overtook Nibali before the finish line while Froome was struggling four minutes behind his arch-rival and closed the Dauphiné with a disappointing twelfth place overall after leading the race for five days and crashing in stage 6.
Nieve on his own to the stage victory
Talansky did most of the work in the final uphill to Courchevel-Le Praz, taking over from Hesjedal, but
as he focused on his time in the overall classification exclusively, Nieve on the other hand was fresh for contesting the stage victory.