Veilleux keeps yellow in Dauphiné
Europcar's Canadian continues to lead French stage race
Canada’s David Veilleux (Movistar) kept his yellow leader’s jersey at the Critérium Dauphiné stage race today, with the lumpy course ending in a group sprint won by Elia Viviani (Italy/Cannondale). Gianni Meersman (Belgium/Omega Pharma-QuickStep), runner-up on the day, is also in second place on GC, 1:56 behind Veilleux. Third overall Tony Gallopin (France/Radioshack) and 56 other riders are 1:57 in arrears.
With its jagged profile, the stage looked like another one for a breakaway. Jose Mendes (Portugal/NetApp), Thomas Damuseau (France/Argos-Shimano), Arnaud Gérard (France/Bretagne-Séché) and Rudy Molard (France/Cofidis) lit out early together and survived the first four short climbs intact before Molard looked to slip the leash on the penultimate ascent.
All the fugitives was hauled in before Molard’s Estonian teammate Rein Taaramae flew away over the day’s last climb, the Cat. 2 Col du Sentier and then tried to hang on through the descent to the finishing town of Oyonnax. Taaramae was reabsorbed with two kilometres to go and it was time to see if Omega Pharma’s hard chase work under Sylvain Chavanel’s whip hand paid off. However, Meersman went a little too early for the line and former track cycist Viviani surged past him for the victory.
