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Valverde dethrones Evans on Mont Ventoux

The Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré changed leaders once again as Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) dethroned Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) on his way to getting himself a 16-second lead in the overall classification at the top of the Mont Ventoux, where stage five finished. En route to collecting his first career win on the top of the Giant of Provence, Polish gregario Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas) helped Valverde into the overall lead.

"I often joke that I ride the Giro [d'Italia] in preparation to the Dauphiné, which is the race I like the most along with the Tour of Romandie", said Szmyd. "At the Grand Tours I'm always busy riding for my captains. It has been for Damiano Cunego and Gilberto Simoni, and now it's for Ivan Basso and Franco Pellizotti."

Szmyd finished second at Mont Ventoux behind Christophe Moreau two years ago. "I knew this climb was a good one for me, so we made a plan this morning with Basso who is also my roommate," said Szmyd, so unused to winning that he panicked just before the last corner despite a sort of gentleman's agreement with Valverde that Szmyd would take the stage victory while the Spaniard took the yellow jersey.

"We didn't speak or anything," said Szmyd, "but it was an automatic agreement. As I was almost sure to win, I became stressed out. I had the feeling I might throw up. My legs simply stopped. I told myself, 'you have to do it'. Eventually, I caught Valverde who behaved as a lord of cycling. He's done so much already in his career."

"The stage win isn't exactly a gift", Valverde said. "Szmyd had the legs for winning. I thanked him for his cooperation. We are both sportsmen." The most important thing for the Spanish champion was becoming the leader instead of Evans.

"Yesterday I did a phenomenal time during the time trial on a course that was absolutely not for me," said Valverde. "Today as I was feeling good with 8km to go, I decided to attack."

Evans found no cooperation in the chase. "It was bizarre," the Australian said. "It seems like not many people want to win the Dauphiné. When you add the headwind to the yellow jersey, it's not easy to climb the Mont Ventoux. I expected more from Contador."

The Astana rider sucked Evans' wheel all the way. "I'm not surprised about that,"said Valvderde when hearing of his compatriot's lack of chasing. "Alberto has repeated on several occasions that he came to the Dauphiné for a warm-up prior to the Tour de France and to test himself in the time trials. He does exactly what he says. And the yellow jersey was on Cadel's shoulder, so it's logical that Cadel had to take responsibility today."

Looking ahead, Valverde said, "I made an important step towards the overall win. This morning I was 1:54 down, and now I'm 16 seconds ahead. I'll try to resist until the end. To win the Dauphiné is important for me and for my team. I still hope to ride the Tour de France but the decision isn't in my hands. The less I think of it, the more I can focus on this race."

Yesterday, the French sports minister said Valvdere - as well as tom Boonen - isn't welcome at the Tour de France. Yet, he's free to win the Dauphiné which will soon see more climbs, including a short, 106km stage with the the col d'Izoard on the way to Briançon.

How it unfolded

A first attack occurred at 11km with three riders: Anthony Geslin (Française des Jeux), José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne) and Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel). They quickly were caught.

A major crash happened on the downhill of the col de Lunel (35km). It involved an important teammate of race leader Cadel Evans, whose Silence-Lotto team was already missing to riders: Mario Aerts and Staf Scheirlinckx. Sebastian Lang was sent to hospital by ambulance.

Soon after the incident, four riders broke clear: José Luis Arrieta (AG2R), Christophe Kern (Cofidis), Alan Perez (Euskaltel) and Frederik Willems (Liquigas). Their advantage quikly increased to five minutes at 45km. Their largest lead was 8:35 at 75km. With 50km to go, it was down to 7:25.

Approaching the Mont Ventoux, the chase was taken up by the Rabobank team of Robert Gesink with Silence-Lotto in second rank. With 13km to go, the Liquigas team appeared at the head of the peloton prior to an acceleration by Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas) 12km before the top as the favourites were marking each other.

With 10km to go, Arrieta and Kern, the remaining leaders, were still two minutes ahead of the group with Evans and led by Robert Gesink. The first riders to rejoin Arrieta and Kern, 7.8km from the top, were Smzyd, Ivan Basso (Liquigas), Haimar Zubeldia (Astana) and Valverde, who came across these three men on his own. Valverde maintained his effort and isolated himself with 7.5km to go. Smzyd rejoined the Spaniard and stood behind, on his wheel.

Five kilometers before the line, Valverde and Smzyd were 50 seconds ahead of Jacob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank), Evans, Alberto Contador (Astana), Gesink, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) and David Moncoutié (Cofidis). Fuglsang had a fantastic ride, but Evans caught him inside 3km to go. Contador had no intention of taking a turn.

With two kilometers to go, the leading duo was 1:50 ahead. Valverde was clearly threatening Evans' yellow jersey as he was 1.54 down on GC in the morning. He became the virtual leader of the race with 1.8km to go.

Smzyd panicked just before the last curve at the top of the Ventoux, but Valverde waited for him and effectively offered him the stage victory as a reward for helping him gain enough time on Evans to take over the lead.

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