Bole blows everyone away

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Grega Bole (Lampre-Farnese Vini) won a chaotic sprint on stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné with Peter Velits (Team HTC – Columbia) in second and Geraint Thomas (Sky Professional Cycling Team) in third. Alberto Contador kept his lead in the overall despite a late threatening flurry from Janez Brajkovic (Team Radioshack).

Bole took advantage of a tricky run-in into Saint-Laurent-du-Pont with most of the sprinters eliminated on the day’s final climb with 6 kilometres remaining.

“I had a long time off after a nasty crash at Paris-Nice I came to this race with good legs. On the last descent I was blocked by a crash that happened in front of me but I managed to get back to the peloton in the final kilometre. Two Team Sky riders launched the sprint and I took advantage," he said.

The stage began in Evian-les-Bains with Contador claiming he and his Astana team would not defend the Spaniard’s overall lead. And they were good to their word, with Biel Kadri (Ag2r), Cyril Gautier (Bbox), Dominique Rollin (Cervelo), Sebastien Minard (Cofidis) and Matthieu Ladagnous (Francaise des Jeux) allowed to break free and build up a substantial lead.

The four Frenchmen and Canadian established a gap of over 9 minutes and with Astana calling everyone’s bluff and sitting within the peloton, it was up to other teams with overall aspirations to chase. A response finally came from Garmin-Transitions, Saxo Bank and Cofidis, with Astana and Contador willing to keep a watchful eye as they protected the Spaniard in the bunch.

The gap slowly began to slip over the energy-sapping terrain and with 40 kilometres to go it was down to 3:30. Twenty kilometres later it had come down further to 2:16 and the writing was on the wall for the day’s break when they reached the foot of the final climb of the Côte de Miribel-les-Echelles with a gap of just thirty seconds.

Behind them though the bunch had split, with a pile-up causing havoc and 40 riders going clear.

Rollin set the pace on the lower slopes in a do-or-die bid to hold off the inevitable but with Contador’s men finally showing themselves on the front, it wasn’t long before the group were absorbed by the peloton with Gautier the final rider to throw in the towel.

Sylvain Calzati (Sky Professional Cycling Team) was amongst the first to try his luck before Kevin Seeldrayers (Quick Step) launched the most dangerous move and crested the top of the climb first. A handful of riders bridged up to the Belgian on the descent but the most worrying for Contador was Janez Brajkovic who weaved through the lead group and set about on a daring solo escape.

Despite his heroics he was caught by Eros Capecchi (Footon-Servetto), who served more as a hindrance than a help as the pair never settled into a rhythm and with the bunch bearing down, they were swept up in the final kilometre.

Without any teammates in the lead group Bole was forced to act alone and in the frantically messy sprint he had enough to hold of a late charge from Velits to take the win.