Criterium du Dauphine: De Gendt solos to stage 1 victory

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Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) won the opening stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné thanks to yet another strong, clever ride from the break of the day.

The Belgian is a breakaway expert, having won on the Stelvio at the Giro d'Italia in 2012 and on Mont Ventoux at the 2016 Tour de France. He did it again Sunday, and was rewarded with the stage victory and the first leader's yellow jersey.

This time De Gendt won alone after dropping Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale) on the final climb outside Saint-Étienne. Domont finished 45 seconds behind. 12 seconds later, Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) won a three-man sprint for third, with the peloton, containing all the big-name overall contenders, just behind.

De Gendt and Domont were part of a seven-rider breakaway that included Antonio Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Romain Sicard (Direct Energie), Silvio Herklotz (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Delio Fernandez and Angel Madrazo (Delko Marseille). They quickly opened a six-minute lead as the peloton hesitated with its chase, making a fatal mistake.

De Gendt and Domont looked the strongest in the break and dropped their companions with two laps of the hilly 15-kilometre finishing circuit left to race. The Dimension Data and Orica-Scott teams tried to lead the chase on the rolling circuits for their respective fast finishers Edvald Boasson Hagen and Daryl Impey but they had little help and the peloton left it too late and with too much to do. Chris Froome (Team Sky), Richie Porte (BMC) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) all preferred to stay protected in the peloton, keeping their legs fresh for the rest of the weeklong stage race.

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Smelling victory, De Gendt then dispatched Domont on the final climb, dived down the descent back to Saint-Étienne and enjoyed his solo win.

He was the first to the top of every climb and so also won the red and white polka-dot jersey. His stage win also gave him the green points jersey. Only his age stopped him also taking the best young rider's white jersey, which went to Pierre Latour, who finished fourth on the stage.

"I was going for the mountains jersey but now I can't wear it because I've got the yellow jersey," De Gendt joked.

"It's great to finally win a stage at the Dauphine. I've tried a few times over the years and now I've finally got one."

"I felt good all day and the start was really hard, so I knew I had a good chance to be in the break. We were seven good guys and so at one point we had six minutes and on this finishing circuit, you can't really chase because we can go as fast as the peloton."

"I think I've got a good chance to keep the jersey until the time trial or even longer. It's great publicity for the team and so we'll try to keep it. Yellow for a few days is always nice."

De Gendt will wear the leader's yellow jersey on Monday's second stage from Saint-Chamond to Arlanc. It includes three climbs midway through the 171km of racing but they should not be a problem for De Gendt and his Lotto Soudal team. 

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