Navarro rocks to Grenoble win

Image 1 of 50

Spain's David Navarro (Astana) won his first race as a professional at the Critérium du Dauphiné on Friday, finishing alone in Grenoble after jumping past the break of the day on the final Chamrousse climb.

He finished 34 seconds ahead of Eros Capecchi (Footon-Servetto), Thibault Pinot (Francaise des Jeux). The remains of the break finished further back, with the overall contenders and race leader Janez Brajkovic (RadioShack) at 3:04. The overall classification remained unchanged, with the USA's Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia) second at 1:15, Alberto Contador (Astana) at 1:41 and David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) fourth at 1:56.

Navarro took advantage as the overall contenders saved their legs for Saturday's decisive mountain stage to the summit of L'Alpe d'Huez. He has been a professional for six years and finally got his day of glory.

"I’m really happy to get my first win here at the Dauphiné,” Navarro said.

“I usually focus on being a good domestique for good leaders in good teams. But today Alberto told me to try and go for it myself. He’s racing here with a lot of tranquility, so I tried my luck and it worked out. Even though I’m not a great cyclist downhill, I managed to stay away.”

The relatively short stage was perfectly suited for an aggressive breakaway attempt and the battle to get in the move was fierce as soon as the peloton left the start in Serre-Chevalier.

They opened a gap of 5:15 but with RadioShack riding tempo on the front, the gap fell to just 2:20 at the start of the Chamrousse. Capecchi, Pinot and Martinez emerged as the strongest climber and probably thought they would fight for the stage victory. However Navarro jumped out of the bunch, with permission from team leader Alberto Contador to ride for himself. Other riders tried a similar move but failed, while Navarro caught the trio with seven kilometres of the climb remaining. Being much fresher, he dropped them and managed to open a 50 second gap at the summit.

Behind Contador and Brajkovic were happy to tackle the climb at a steady pace and chatted as the racing went on up front. They both know things will be very different on the slopes of L'Alpe d'Huez on Saturday.

Capecchi and Pinot tried to chase Navarro on the sweeping descent but only pulled back 20 seconds before the finish and had to be content with second and third. Champion won the sprint for fourth at 1:39, ahead of Martinez and Christophe Moreau (Caisse d'Epargne).

The peloton finished fast as riders fought for the final points on offer but all the overall contenders were together. Bole won the sprint for 13th place, to score a further eight points. He is now third, just four points behind Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and two down on Brajkovic.

Saturday's sixth stage is another short but mountainous stage. It starts in Crolles and finishes at the summit of L'Alpe d'Huez after 151.5km of racing but also includes the Col du Grand Cucheron and the Col du Glandon. The 13.8'km final climb on the testing slopes of L'Alpe d'Huez will surely decide who goes on to win this year's Critérium du Dauphiné.

Full Results