Criterium du Dauphiné stage 1: Veilleux attacks from the gun to ride to victory

David Veilleux of Europcar took the spoils on a short-but-tough stage 1 of the Criterium du Dauphiné, attacking from the gun to spend a day in the lead and tomorrow in the leader's jersey.

Veilleux was joined by Thomas Damuseau (Argos - Shimano), Jean-Marc Bideau (Bretagne - Séché) and Ricardo Garcia (Euskaltel - Euskadi) and the quertet quickly built up a big lead; with 40km covered their advantage was over ten minutes. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma - Quickstep) went off the front of the peloton in an attampt to bridge and put his time trialling skills to good use, quickly riding to within a few minutes of the leaders.

Over the first-category Col du Corbier the lead group splintered and Veilleux struck out alone, leaving Damuseau and Garcia behind and Bideau, caught by Martin, further down the road. As the distance to the finish decreased it looked increasingly likely that Veilleux would have the legs to stay out, and so it proved. The Canadian took the tape in Champery almost two minutes up on the main field, which had caught the rest of the escapees on the final climb. Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma - Quickstep) took second ahead of the bunch led by Tom Jelte Slagter.

Stage and overall standing

1. VEILLEUX David               TEAM EUROPCAR             3h 17' 35"
2. MEERSMAN Gianni              OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP    +1' 56"
3. SLAGTER Tom Jelte            BLANCO PRO CYCLING TEAM    +1' 57"
4. PORTE Richie                 SKY PROCYCLING             st
5. FROOME Christopher           SKY PROCYCLING
6. MADRAZO Angel                MOVISTAR TEAM
7. FUGLSANG Jakob               ASTANA PRO TEAM
8. VALVERDE Alejandro           MOVISTAR TEAM
9. GALLOPIN Tony                RADIOSHACK LEOPARD
10. KONIG Leopold               TEAM NETAPP-ENDURA
11. CONTADOR Alberto            TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF
12. VICHOT Arthur               FDJ
13. BARGUIL WARREN              TEAM ARGOS-SHIMANO
14. ROGERS Michael              TEAM SAXO-TINKOFF
15. BAGOT Yoann                 COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS
16. VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen       LOTTO-BELISOL
17. SANCHEZ Samuel              EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
18. KOREN Kristijan             CANNONDALE
19. IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI Gorka    EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
20. TAARAMAE Rein               COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS