Critérium du Dauphiné

Stage 2: Annonay to Bourg-Saint-Andéol, 177km/110mi

By Cathy Mehl

A late-race catch in the last 1000 meters of racing set up a group sprint to the line in Bourg-Saint-Andéol for the second stage of the 62nd Critérium du Dauphiné.  With the riders spread wide across the road and the sprint in full cry, Saxo Bank’s Juan José Haedo shot through an opening on the left side of the course to claim an easy victory.  Once a formidable sprinting force in the US peloton, Haedo is now finding strong success in the European races as well.  Second and third places went to Martin Reimer (Cervelo) and yesterday’s winner Grega Bole (Lampre).  There was no change to the overall with Alberto Contador (Astana) remaining in the yellow leader’s jersey.  Team RadioShack’s Jani Brajkovic still holds third on the General Classification behind American rider Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia).

With The Shack’s Haimar Zubeldia out of the race with a broken wrist, the boys had to re-group and adjust to riding without him and settle into a new routine with only seven riders.  Haimar headed home this morning and is resting comfortably now, hopefully healing quickly.  We send good wishes for a speedy recovery to Haimar.

Astana finally put in some time on the front to keep Contador safe as the peloton approached the finish, aided by Milram, Saxo Bank, Liquigas and Futon-Servetto, and the gap finally started to plunge.  But by 10km to go the gap had plunged to 1:20, making the chance of a catch more a 50/50 proposition now as the peloton put in an incredible chase that should have given quicker results. A headwind put the hurt on the riders and probably contributed to the demise of the leaders, but with a mere one-kilometer to go the peloton was all together and the group gallop was full gas.  Haedo’s win came after almost 4-1/2 hours of racing.

1          Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank       4:24:10             

2          Martin Reimer (Ger) Cervelo Test Team                     

3          Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-Farnese Vini                       

4          Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française Des Jeux                          

5          Roger Kluge (Ger) Team Milram                     

6          Andreas Stauff (Ger) Quick Step                    

7          Jeremie Galland (Fra) Saur - Sojasun              

8          Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, le Credit en Ligne                

9          Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team                      

10        Michel Kreder (Ned) Garmin – Transitions

Team RadioShack Results

44        Jani Brajkovic (Slo)

62        Christopher Horner (USA)

80        Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

100      Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)

134      Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)

141      Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por)

143      Ben Hermans (Bel)

General Classification after Stage 2

1          Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana        9:20:08             

2          Tejay Van Garderen (USA) Team HTC - Columbia 0:00:02             

3          Jani Brajkovic (Slo) Team Radioshack         0:00:05             

4          Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team         0:00:10             

5          Dario Cataldo (Ita) Quick Step          0:00:12             

6          Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Cofidis, le Credit en Ligne                        

7          Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun    0:00:14             

8          Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale                          

9          Gorka Verdugo Marcotegui (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi          0:00:15             

10        David Millar (GBr) Garmin – Transitions

Team RadioShack on General Classification

16        Christopher Horner (USA)   0:00:18 

153      Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por)   0:07:40

156      Tomas Vaitkus (Ltu)

157      Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra)   0:07:51     

161      Ben Hermans (Bel)    0:10:19

166      Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa) 0:12:26

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson