Stefan Denifl, rider of the day!
The first day in the mountains during the 4th stage of this year’s Critérium du Dauphiné saw increased activity and very strong efforts from Cervélo TestTeam’s Stefan Denifl (AUT) and Oscar Pujol (ESP).
In fact the entire team was very active today. The peloton only caught Denifl in the last 3 km and then Pujol took it over finishing just behind the group of favourites.
Nicolas Vogondy (FRA-Bbox Bouygues Telecom) won the stage when he soloed to victory 12 seconds ahead of Romain Sicard (FRA- Euskaltel-Euskadi) and 15 seconds up on race leader Janez Brajkovic (SLO-Team RadioShack).
“It was great performance today from this young team, especially Stefan Denifl and Oscar Pujol,” said an enthused Philippe Mauduit, Sports Director. “Stefan was in the break away of the day, that began 20 km after the start, together with Danny Pate (US – Garmin-Transitions). They had hoped to get more guys in the group but when nobody else came along, they decided to go together. The last 60 km with the cross wind, made the race harder but they had to try. Denifl attacked at the bottom of the last climb, and tried to increase the speed to make the gap as big as possible. In the peloton Rabobank attacked and after that there where a lot of attacks, which was not so good for Stefan but he did an incredible climb and they only caught him with just 3 km to go. Oscar Pujol was able to follow the top riders on the climb and also rode really impressively.”
“For sure I am pretty disappointed, as it was a big chance to win a stage in a big race” said Stefan Denifl after the stage. “It was a really hard day, in a break of 180 km and with a lot of wind.”
Tomorrow’s stage from Serre-Chevalier to Grenoble, though considerably shorter at 143.5 km also features the Col du Lautaret, category 2 climb and then, about 21 km from the finish Chamrousse which is beyond classification as the Critérium du Dauphiné spends it’s second day in the mountains.
Critérium du Dauphiné Stage 4 Results: Saint-Paul-Troix – Risoul 210.0 km
1st Nicolas Vogondy (FRA) 6:03:25 34.67 km/h (21.54 mph)
2nd Romain Sicard (FRA) +0.12
3rd Janez Brajkovic (SLO) +0.15
12th Oscar Pujol (ESP) +0.29
57th Stefan Denifl (AUT) +2.47
General Classification after Stage 4:
1st Janez Brajkovic (SLO) 16:25:44 38.53 km/h (23.94 mph)
2nd Tejay Van Garderen (USA) +1.15
3rd Alberto Contador (ESP) +1.41
Photo: TDWsport.com