Michal wins the time trial
Geraint Thomas rode a blistering pace in the opening 6.6-kilometre time trial but crashed on one of the corners, losing the hope of taking an early lead in the Critérium. Luckily, it was nothing serious and the Brit should stay in the GC contention. At the end of the day, it was Michal Kwiatkowski who took the win. The Pole finished the race in 7 minutes and 25 seconds, one second faster than Jos Van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo). It was Kwiatkowski’s first win since his overall triumph at the Tirreno-Adriatico.
“I know how hard I was training to be here in shape for the Dauphiné and for the Tour de France. You have to be at the start thinking about the win, otherwise you won’t perform well,” Kwiatkowski said.
Team Sky seems to be in a good position to add another win after Chris Froome’s unbelievable performance at the Giro. Both Thomas and Kwiatkowski will lead the team in the beginning, and itis only up to them to show who’s in better form.
Critérium du Dauphiné 2018, Prologue: Valence (6.6km)
1 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Team Sky, in 7-25
2 Jos van Emden (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, at 1s
3 Gianni Moscon (Ita) Team Sky, at 3s
4 Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at 5s
5 Patrick Bevin (NZl) BMC Racing Team, st
6 Matthias Brandle (Aut) Trek-Segafredo, at 6s
7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors, at 7s
8 Jens Keukeleire (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at 9s
9 Jonathan Castroviejo (Esp) Team Sky, st
10 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team, at 11s
Quick-Step riders’ training interrupted by bears
Iljo Keisse, Maximiliano Richeze, and Fernando Gaviria are training in America and got a big surprise a few days ago. They found a bear with her 3 cubs playing in their backyard. They took a few pictures of them and thought no more about it. The bears, however, got hungry.
They let themselves in and tasted all that fancy cycling food.
Luckily, the guys were out riding.
That last visit must have given them quite a scare.
