Froome dominates the opening Dauphine TT in Lyon

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Chris Froome (Team Sky) showed he is on form and ready to take on his Tour de France rivals in July by dominating the opening time trial of the Criterium du Dauphine.

The Briton was two seconds slower than Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and only one second faster than Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) at the intermediate time check after the 1.7km illuminated cycling tunnel and climb in the centre of Lyon but then blasted to the finish, overcoming a slight headwind to win the 10.4km time trial in a time of 13:13.

Contador set an excellent time of 13:21 to beat early leader Bob Jungels (Trek Factory Racing) by a second but was humbled by Froome's final time and strong finish. Nibali lost time on the flat roads along the river and finished eighth in a time of 13:26.

Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) showed he is on form and an overall contender by finishing fourth with a time of 13:24. Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) who finished seventh overall at the Giro d'Italia just last Sunday, finished in the same time to take fifth place.

Froome, who won the 2013 Dauphine, will wear the leader's yellow jersey during Monday's 156km road stage from Tarare to the summit of the Col du Beal. It is a true mountain finish and show the climbing form of Froome, Contador, Nibali and the other overall rivals.

Froome has been in the spotlight this week after Bradley Wiggins said he is almost certain not to be part of Team Sky's Tour de France squad but the Kenyan-born Briton seemed happy to be back racing and be back in yellow at the Dauphine.

“I'm very, very happy with my performance today. I didn't think I'd do so well in such a short and flat time trial," Froome said after pulling on the yellow jersey.

"I'm definitely here to try and win the race overall. We'll do everything we can but the most important is to wear the yellow jersey at the end of the race, not at the beginning."

"The Dauphiné this year is really hard from stage 1 and stage 2. Looking at the results today, we expect a very big race in the mountains. I'm pretty much where I was last year if not a little bit better.”

Jungels impresses until Froome takes centre stage

Froome's winning margin was significant and surprising, as was Jungels leading the race until Contador and Froome came in. The Luxembourger is just 21 and so took the best young rider's white jersey. However he has a time trial pedigree and is a former junior time trial champion against the clock.

Several riders followed Jungles decision to start earlier in the day to try and take advantage of possible worsening conditions. However with the sun hot in the sky and only a slight wind, there was no real advantage. Tejay van Garderen (BMC) went early and set a time of 13:26, while Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was another early starter and recorded 13:29.

Most times were around that of Contador and Jungels, with only Froome's super time making them look off the pace.

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