Today, Sunday June 7th, is the last day to register for this great event.
With their team mate Peter Kennaugh in yellow and team leader Chris Froome a major favourite, Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan will be busy in the week ahead at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Cannondale-Garmin's Dan Martin will be in the hunt for a strong general classification ride and a stage win.
Three Irish riders are in action for the next week in the traditional Tour de France tune-up event, Critérium du Dauphiné; Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan.
On today's opening stage from Ugine to Albertville, the riders raced for 131km but faced eight categorised climbs.
The filed raced from the start for just over 30km before completing five laps of a finishing circuit, with a cat 3 climb each time.
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Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) was among a small breakaway to move clear of the peloton in the final climb.
And while they mopped up the last of the day's early escape in the closing kilometres, with just 3km remaining to the finish the bunch were within touching distance.
Philip Deignan, leading, shows the strain during stage 1 of the Critérium du Dauphiné today, Sunday (Photo: Sirotti)
But not long before the 2km to go marker and just as the men out front were about to be caught, Kennaugh jumped this he was with.
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And despite having just 10 seconds at the 1km remaining kite, he held off the peloton by just two seconds to win, and take a 10-second time bonus.
Roche and Martin finished in the main bunch; 31st and 63rd. Deignan came home 137th in a group 4:18 down after discharging his team responsibilities for the day.
Kennaugh holds the yellow jersey by six seconds from the man who won the bunch sprint for 2nd place, Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida). Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN – Qhubeka) was 3rd on the stage and sits in the same position overall, at eight seconds.
Tomorrow’s stage 2 is 173km and features a cat 2 climb at the very start, with a cat 1 coming after 75km.
Today, Sunday June 7th, is the last day to register for this great event.
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