Criterium du Dauphine #1: First World Tour jersey for MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung

The opening stage of the Criterium du Dauphine would be a close on perfect start for Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung as Edvald Boasson Hagen sprinted to 3rd place at the finish and Daniel Teklehaimanot pulled on the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey.

Our African team started the stage off on the front foot as Daniel got into the early break of the day that went away in the first 10km of the stage. Daniel was joined by Bjorn Thurau (Bora Argon 18), Romain Guillemois (Eurpocar) and Maarten Wynants (Lotto-Jumbo) and the 4 riders pushed out a 7 minute lead relatively quickly.

The main part of the route would be made up by a 16km circuit that would be completed 6 times. There was a cat 3 climb on the circuit, meaning the King of the Mountains jersey was up for grabs. Daniel grabbed the opportunity with both hands and won 5 of the KOM sprints. His efforts were good enough to pull on the polka dot jersey at the end of the stage and this would be a significant milestone for our African team as it would be the first World Tour jersey won in our team’s history.

The peloton though, were still intent on bringing the break back before the stage end and that, they did. On the last time up the circuits climb, a number of attacks saw a 5 rider group ride across the 20″ gap to Thurau, who was the last surviving member of the break. Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) was part of this new lead group and he would attack the group with 2km to go.

MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had Steve Cummings leading the chase behind as our African team looked to set the stage up for Edvald. Reinardt Janse van Rensburg would then put in a stellar effort over the final kilometer to leadout Edvald. Kennaugh would hold on to take the victory, arriving just 2 seconds ahead of Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) who was 2nd with Edvald finishing 3rd by a few centimeters.