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Sorgues
49 km
Wednesday 9 June
1. Brajkovic (RadioShack), 1.01.51
2. Millar (Garmin), at 0.26
3. Boasson Hagen (Sky), at 0.43
4. Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia), at 0.53
5. Menchov (Rabobank), at 0.55
6. Contador (Astana), at 1.45
Janez Brajkovic has set a new best time on the finishing line: 1.01.51. It’s 26 seconds faster than David Millar. His average speed is 47.53km/h.
At the km 32 time check, the top 6 is:
1. Brajkovic (RadioShack), 43.50
2. Millar (Garmin), at 0.16
3. Boasson Hagen (Sky), at 0.22
4. Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia), at 0.31
5. Menchov (Rabobank), at 0.54
6. Contador (Astana), at 0.58
The best time on the finishing line so far is set by David Millar in 1.02.17. It’s 17 seconds faster than Boasson Hagen.
At the 15.5km time check, the top 5 is:
1. Brajkovic (RadioShack), 23.26
2. Millar (Garmin), 23.35
3. Van Garderen (HTC-Columbia), 23.42
4. Boasson Hagen (Sky), 23.54
5. Contador (Astana), 23.58
Janez Brajkovic (RadioShack) has the new best time after 15.5km: 23.26. It’s 9 seconds better than Millar, 16 seconds better than Van Garderen and 28 seconds better than Boasson Hagen.
Dario Cataldo (Quick Step) who started in fifth last position crashed in the first part of the race. He passed the KOM one and half minute adrift David Millar who still has the best first intermediate time.
David Millar set a new best time at the first check point: 23.35. It’s 19 seconds faster than Boasson Hagen.
After coming 8th in the prologue of the Dauphiné on Sunday, German neo-pro Patrick Gretsch did well again. He has the fourth best finishing time so far in 1.04.06. He bettered the time of his compatriot and team-mate Bert Grabsch who is a former world champion for time trial.
The last rider to start, Alberto Contador, is now in action with the yellow and blue skinsuit.
David Millar is racing now. The Scot has set this time trial as one of his big goals for the 2010 season.
Dutchman Michel Kreder of Garmin-Transition has crashed after the first time check and was forced to pull out of the race.
Bert Grabsch will not repeat his performance from last year at the Dauphiné. He won the time trial of Bourg-lès-Valence in 2009 but he clocked the fourth best time on the finishing line in Sorgues so far in 1.04.07.
Denis Menchov was reassured about his condition after riding the time trial only 12 seconds slower than current leader Edvald Boasson Hagen. "I’m satisfied with my performance", the Russian told letour.fr. "It’s a good sign of my condition. The time trial is always very important for me. It was important to try the material as well. In one hour of solo effort, you can see where you are at. I tried to go full gas. The wind made the race hard and a little bit dangerous especially in the descent. I’m here to get the rhythm of the competition. I know what I have to improve during the coming stages in the mountains. I want to come out of the Dauphiné with good condition."
Denis Menchov has finished strongly. He was 32 seconds down on Boasson Hagen at km 32. At the finish, he clocked 1.02.46, which is only 12 seconds slower than the Norwegian.
Belarus’ Konstantin Sivtsov (HTC-Columbia) clocked the second best time so far in 1.04.54. It’s 2.20 slower than Boasson Hagen.
Denis Menchov is on his way. At the first check point (km 15.5), he was 18 seconds adrift Edvald Boasson Hagen. At the second check point (km 32), he was 32 seconds down on the Norwegian.
Behind Edvald Boasson Hagen (1.02.34), Brian Vandborg, the former time trial Danish champion from Liquigas, and Pierrick Fedrigo of Bbox Bouygues Telecom, have scored the 2nd and 3rd best times 2.24 and 2.41 slower than the Norwegian respectively.
Edvald Boasson Hagen holds the best finishing time so far in 1.02.43 at the average speed of 46.990km/h. He told letour.fr: "This is a good time. I was feeling well today. Because I haven’t trained hard recently, since I resumed riding my bike three weeks ago after my Achilles injury, I wanted to test myself today. It was pretty hard with the head wind after the GPM. I used my 46 gear in the climb but on the way back with tailwind, I was on the 55x11 all the time. It was a long course but I’m used to do 50 kilometres at the National and World championships. I hope to get the best possible result in this stage once the big names will finish."
Edvald Boasson Hagen has set an impressive best time of 1.02.34 on the finishing line. It’s 2.35 faster than Tomas Vaitkus.
The Norwegian has bettered Vaitkus’ time by 9 seconds at km 15.5.
Slovenian time trial champion Janez Brajkovic who is one of the hot favourites of today’s stage wrote on twitter a couple of minutes ago: "Pre rode the TT. It’s windy, with super bad road, descend with a lot of gravel on the road. Very hard"
In today’s L’Equipe, Philippe Le Gars wonders why Denis Menchov isn’t performing at the level of his reputation. Last year’s winner of the Giro d’Italia finished 35th of the prologue in Evian-les-Bains and didn’t look very concerned about his classification yesterday. “I don’t have the necessary strength for winning here yet. But there are four weeks remaining before the start of the Tour de France. I have time and I’m sure to be up there in July.”
Jean-Christophe Péraud explains his two consecutive crashes to Eric Bruna in Le Parisien. “My bruises aren’t nice to see”, said the French champion for time trial. “I’ve preferred not to undergo x-rays because I don’t want to know. It’s painful, but as long as my legs can pedal… No, I’m in real difficulty.” The former mountain biker joked as he said: “I wonder if I know how to ride in a bunch. I’d better go back to my stones. They don’t move!” Today’s time trial will give an indication of the impact of his injuries.
Le Dauphiné newspaper questions in today’s pull out about the race: “Why is today’s time trial so long?” The answer is: “With 49 kilometres, this time trial is the longest of the current cycling season until the penultimate stage of the Tour de France from Bordeaux to Pauillac (52km). Charly Mottet, the former technical director of the Criterium who was in charge of the route, has always wanted that climbers and time triallists can both confront themselves in a 1-hour long effort three weeks prior to the Tour de France.”
At km 15.5, Tomas Vaitkus (RadioShack) is 40 seconds faster than Bak. He clocked 25.45, which is the best time so far.
Danish champion for time trial Lars Bak (HTC-Columbia) has set a good time at km 15.5 in 25.25. He precedes Ben Hermans (RadioShack) by 16 seconds.
27 riders are on the road now. Norwegian champion for time trial Edvald Boasson Hagen has started. He showed his return in good form yesterday as he pulled the sprint for Geraint Thomas in the last two kilometres.
Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) who came second in stage 1 is out of the race. He crashed yesterday three kilometres away from the finishing line and has a broken collarbone, as reported in newspaper Le Dauphiné. He will probably miss the Tour de France.
There will be two intermediate time checks at the top of the côte de La Roque-sur-Pernes (km 15.5) and in Velleron (km 32).
The distinctive jerseys are on the shoulders of Alberto Contador (yellow and blue) who will start last at 15:20, Grega Bole (green) who will leave the starting ramp at 15:00 and Bram Tankink (polka dot) who will be the first of them in action at 13:03.
Contador leads the race since he won the inaugural prologue on Sunday in Evian-les-Bains.
Bole leads the points classification thanks to the addition of the points he collected with winning stage 1 on Monday in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont and finishing 3rd yesterday in Bourg-Saint-Andéol. The Slovenian from Lampre has 52 points, which is two more than runner up Geraint Thomas (Sky) who made the top ten of all three first stages. Steve Chainel (Bbox) is third in the ranking with 27 points.
Tankink is the rider who scored the highest number of points at the top of the climbs in yesterday’s stage: 23. The Dutchman from Rabobank precedes Guillaume Bonnafond (Ag2r) who has 22 points, and Cyril Gautier (Bbox), 20. They have a chance to change the ranking today with the 3rd category climb of La Roque-sur-Pernes at km 15.5.
The first starter of the day, Joaquin Novoa from Cervélo, is on the road.
Welcome to the live coverage of stage 3 of the 62nd Criterium du Dauphiné. It’s a 49km individual time trial from Monteux to Sorgues in the province of Vaucluse.
