2013 Critérium Du Dauphiné

The 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné was the 65th running of the Critérium du Dauphiné cycling stage race; a race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation, rated as a World Tour event on the UCI calendar, the highest classification such an event can have. The race consisted of eight stages, beginning in Champéry on 2 June â€“ the first such start for the race in Switzerland â€“ and concluding in Risoul on 9 June, and was the sixteenth race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season. The Dauphiné was viewed as a great preparation for July's Tour de France and a number of the contenders for the general classification of the Tour participated in the Dauphiné. It featured mountainous stages as well as an individual time trial similar in length to the Tour.

The race was won by Great Britain's Chris Froome of  â€“ the third successive year that the squad had won the race, after Bradley Wiggins' victories in 2011 and 2012. Froome took the overall lead of the race after winning the fifth stage, and maintained his advantage to the end of the race to win his fourth stage race of the 2013 season. Ultimately, Froome won the general classification by 58 seconds over runner-up and team-mate Richie Porte, a domestique for Froome in the mountainous stages on the route. The podium was completed by Daniel Moreno of , who finished 74 seconds in arrears of Porte, and two minutes 12 seconds behind Froome.

In the race's other classifications, 's Rohan Dennis was the winner of the white jersey for the young rider classification as he was the highest placed rider born in 1988 or later, finishing in eighth place overall. Despite not winning any stages during the race, Gianni Meersman of won the green jersey, for the winner of the points classification â€“ gained at intermediate sprints and stage finishes â€“ while the red and white polka-dotted jersey for the King of the Mountains classification went to rider Thomas Damuseau. The teams classification was comfortably won by for the second year in a row; they were over twelve minutes clear of the next best team, .

Teams

As the Critérium du Dauphiné was a UCI World Tour event, all UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Originally, eighteen ProTeams were invited to the race, with four other squads given wildcard places. were not originally invited to the race, but when they later regained their ProTour status after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the race organisers announced their inclusion, bringing the total number of teams competing to twenty-three.

During May's Giro d'Italia, Sylvain Georges tested positive for the vasodilator heptaminol, after the seventh stage; his positive test was the second by a rider from the squad in the space of a year, after Steve Houanard tested positive for the glycoprotein hormone erythropoietin (EPO) in an out-of-competition test in September 2012. Since the team was a member of the Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible union, a second positive test meant that, according to the union's regulations, they had to stop racing for eight days. The team voluntarily withdrew from the Dauphiné, avoiding a financial penalty which could have been incurred by the team for failing to compete in a World Tour event, against UCI regulations. As a result, the peloton was reduced to the following twenty-two teams.

Among the 176-rider starting peloton was only one previous winner of the race: Alejandro Valverde, the winner of the race in 2008 and 2009, led the .

Schedule

The route for the race was announced on 15 April 2013.

Stages

Stage 1

;2 June 2013 â€” Champéry (Switzerland) to Champéry (Switzerland),

Despite starting and finishing in the village of Champéry â€“ the first occasion that the race had started in Switzerland in its history â€“ most of the opening stage of the 2013 Critérium du Dauphiné was just over the Franco-Swiss border in the Haute-Savoie department, where the previous year's race had finished. After a slight descent from the start, the race's first climb commenced after just of racing, with the first-category Côte de Morgins, a -long, 6% climb. After a long and steady descent, another first-category climb of the Col du Corbier â€“ which featured in the 2012 Dauphiné-ending stage â€“ was ascented, a test at an average of 7.5%. On the return loop to Champéry, after passing through the intermediate sprint at La Chapelle-d'Abondance, the Côte de Morgins was climbed from the other side (this time as a second-category climb), before a third-category climb â€“ the Côte de Champéry â€“ just a kilometre from the finish. This parcours, especially the closing kilometres, was expected to see sprinters being dropped from the peloton, resulting in a select group of riders at the finish.

The day's breakaway was initiated at the front of the day's opening climb, the Côte de Morgins, with the initial move being made by rider David Veilleux. Veilleux was later joined by 's Ricardo García, rider Thomas Damuseau and Jean-Marc Bideau of , and the quartet built up a maximum lead on the road of around ten minutes. Behind them, Tony Martin () set off in pursuit of the four leaders, but was not able to reach the lead group at any point. Veilleux attacked on the Col du Corbier, and managed to break away by 40 seconds from García and Damuseau â€“ Bideau had been dropped earlier on the climb â€“ in to the top of the climb. Veilleux remained well clear into the closing stages, and eventually came across the line to take the biggest win of his career â€“ his first win at World Tour level â€“ by almost two minutes. In doing so, Veilleux claimed the race lead in the general, points and mountains classifications. The remaining members of the breakaway were caught, and this allowed Martin's team-mate Gianni Meersman to take second, ahead of 's Tom-Jelte Slagter, who was the best-placed young rider.

Stage 2

;3 June 2013 â€” Châtel to Oyonnax,

Although categorised as a flat stage by the race organisers, the second half of the parcours was set to test whether the sprinters could with remain with the peloton all the way to the finish in Oyonnax. Five of the day's six categorised climbs came in a portion of the route, with the last of these â€“ the second-category Col du Sentier â€“ coming with just remaining of the stage. The Col du Sentier was the day's steepest climb, with an average gradient of 7.6%, and was one of two second-category ascents, along with the -long Côte de Communal (6.3%) around prior. The descent into Oyonnax was fast, before a gradual rise to the finish.

Four separate riders attempted to make solo breakaways early in the stage, but it was not until the point that a group was able to separate from the peloton. For the second day running, rider Thomas Damuseau was in the breakaway, with the main aim of taking the mountains classification lead away from overall leader David Veilleux of . Joining Damuseau in the group initially were 's Arnaud Gérard and rider Rudy Molard, while a fourth rider, José Mendes (), was able to bridge up to the group from the peloton. With three-quarters of the group being within two minutes of Veilleux after the opening stage, the peloton were unwilling to give the group too much distance on the road, and the gap peaked at no more than five minutes, just after halfway.

Veilleux's team maintained the pace in the peloton, pulling the group back as Damuseau led the leaders over the top of the first four climbs, but the quartet held a lead of less than a minute at the foot of the Côte du Bugnon. Molard attacked his companions, and pulled the advantage out to just over a minute, while the others were brought back by the peloton, now being led by . Molard's resistance lasted until the bottom of the final climb, the Col du Sentier, when the peloton sped by. His team-mate Rein Taaramäe attacked on the climb itself, remaining clear to around from the finish of the stage. had led the chase, and also led the field into the final kilometre for their sprinter Elia Viviani, and after navigating the hairpin bend with left, Viviani was the strongest in the sprint and took his first win of 2013 ahead of 's Gianni Meersman, who finished second for the second day running. Veilleux finished within the peloton to maintain his race lead by 1' 56" over Meersman.

Stage 3

;4 June 2013 â€” Ambérieu-en-Bugey to Tarare,

The third stage of the race was split into two distinctive sections; the first portion of the -long stage from the start town of Ambérieu-en-Bugey was predominantly flat as the race headed towards the feeding zone in the commune of Lancié. From there, the route moved uphill towards the first of the day's two categorised climbs. The Col des Echarmeaux was a long, but rolling climb of 3% over , with a steady descent towards the intermediate sprint point, coming before the finish, in the commune of Cublize. The route descended a little further, before the Col des Sauvages, a third-category climb at an average gradient over of 5.5%. The summit of the climb came before the finish into Tarare; the finish was technical, with two tight left-hand turns in the final kilometre.

Four riders broke clear of the main field almost immediately after the race rolled out of Ambérieu-en-Bugey, with Fumiyuki Beppu () being joined in the breakaway by rider Jacob Rathe, Sander Cordeel of and 's Juan Antonio Flecha. The quartet pulled clear to a maximum advantage of around seven minutes early in the stage. This was steadily brought down by the team-mates of the race leader David Veilleux () and the team for their sprinter Gianni Meersman. also aided with the chase for Nacer Bouhanni, and the peloton was within a minute of the leaders at the intermediate sprint in Cublize. Cordeel was the last member of the group to be caught, just as he commenced the Col des Sauvages. After several solo attacks were pulled back by , it set up the final sprint in Tarare. With a lead-out from team-mate Geraint Thomas, Edvald Boasson Hagen finished strongest to take the stage win â€“ the third Dauphiné win of his career â€“ ahead of 's Michael Matthews and Meersman.

Stage 4

;5 June 2013 â€” Villars-les-Dombes to Parc des Oiseaux, , individual time trial (ITT)

The race's only individual time trial of an extensive length was held as an out-and-back loop around Villars-les-Dombes in the Ain department. The parcours of the -long stage was almost entirely flat. The stage finished at the Parc des Oiseaux, one of the largest ornithological parks in Europe. Race organisers had expected the quickest times for the course to be around forty minutes. Several of the general classification leaders regarded the time trial as a test for an individual time trial of similar length due to be held in July, at the Tour de France. As is customary in time trial stages, cyclists set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage. Thus, Larry Warbasse of the , who was in 172nd place of the 176 starters, trailing overall leader David Veilleux by thirty-five minutes and fourteen seconds, was the first rider to set off on the stage.

Warbasse recorded a time of 42' 43" for the course, but his stay at the top was almost immediately beaten by 's Mitchell Docker. Docker had started two minutes behind Warbasse â€“ riders had started the stage at one-minute intervals â€“ and nearly caught him towards the end, having already passed his team-mate Yannick Eijssen on the course. rider Alexander Wetterhall was the next rider to record the fastest time, setting a benchmark of 40' 19"; Jack Bauer was the first rider to break the expected fastest time, recording a sub-40 minute time for the parcours, as the rider went top with 39' 33". Eloy Teruel went five seconds quicker than Bauer for the to assume top spot for a short time, before Czech national champion Jan Bárta, a team-mate of Wetterhall at , completed the course over a minute quicker in a time of 38' 30".

Teruel's team-mate Jonathan Castroviejo almost recorded the first time below 38 minutes, falling a couple of seconds shy with a time of 38' 02", but was still almost half a minute clear of the best time to that point, set by Bárta. His time was to be beaten by only three riders, the first of which was the eventual stage-winning time recorded by the world champion Tony Martin, riding for the team. Martin was comfortably quickest at each of the two intermediate time-checks along the route, and crossed the line over a minute clear of Castroviejo; he had recorded a time of 36' 54". Martin's winning time allowed him to claim his sixth individual time trial victory of 2013. rider Rohan Dennis recorded the second-fastest time for the course at 37' 41", and by doing so, became the new leader of the Dauphiné by five seconds, from 's Chris Froome â€“ the best of the general classification contenders, and one of four riders in the top six â€“ as Veilleux lost more than three minutes on the course.

Stage 5

;6 June 2013 â€” Grésy-sur-Aix

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