Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) won stage 1 at the Critérium du Dauphiné from a reduced sprint in Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert. The South African champion beat Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe).
Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) finished in fifth place and kept his lead in the overall classification, now two seconds ahead of Impey and three seconds ahead of his Sky teammate Gianni Moscon, who leads the young rider classification.
The peloton took on a 179km rolling stage from Valence to Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert. Nicolas Edet (Cofidis, Solutions Credits), Brice Feillu (Fortuneo-Samsic) and Lawson Craddock (EF Education First-Drapac) formed the day's breakaway early on and they pushed their lead out to six minutes. The trio were all reeled in with 11km to go.
Dangerous attacks from Alaphilippe and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), among others, animated the final kilometres, but Team Sky managed to keep the reduced field together into the final metres of the race where Impey jumped early and won the race by several bike lengths.
Watch the summary of stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné in the video highlights above.
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