Dan Martin has not been blessed with good luck of late, but today was different. He just about skirted around a crash at Critérium du Dauphiné as others came down very hard. Above, Impey claims the stage.
Unlucky several times already this year; Dan Martin has narrowly avoided a late crash at Critérium du Dauphiné.
The Irishman skirted around a spill that took several riders down in the closing kilometres of stage 1.
And in the end he finished in the leading pack of 65 riders; the field splitting on the undulating finishing circuit.
The crash occurred with 9km remaining; an Astana rider first to fall just to the left of Dan Martin (at 1:30 in the video below).
And as the Irish rider scampered away to safety, several others hit the tarmac very hard.
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Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) claimed the stage and Michel Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) retained the race lead.
The race leader surrounded by Team Sky, the breakaway and Alaphilippe's attack.
The early escape went clear with just 5km raced of the 179km stage from Valence to Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert.
Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Brice Feillu (Fortuneo-Samsic) and Lawson Craddock (EF-Education First-Drapac) made up the escape.
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They would build a lead of six minutes. Edet and Craddock were only caught with 11km remaining.
Shortly after their recapture the race really came to life, with several of the general classification men showing themselves on a late climb.
Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-Merida) was first to attack on the final climb with 5km to go. Dylan Teuns (BMC) was next, making bigger inroads.
Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep) would then let rip but he was covered closely by race leader Kwiatkowski.
That action saw a very strong group pull clear; Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) joining them.
Michael Valgren (Astana) was also in the move. And while a regrouping quickly took place it looked dangerous for a brief period.
From that point to the finish only a late and brief attack by Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) threatened to upset what looked like a group finish scenario.
And so it came to pass; Impey going early in the sprint and winning it very impressively on a slightly uphill finish.
The South African national champion was several lengths ahead of Alaphilippe.
Next came Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal), Kwiatkowski and Jesus Herrada (Cofidis).
Dan Martin was 32nd, finishing on the same time as stage winner Impey.
Tuesday’s stage 2 takes the riders 180.5km from Montbrison to Belleville en Beaujolais. With four cat 3 climbs and one cat 4, it looks like one for a breakaway or bunch sprint.
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