Colbrelli finally takes his turn
June 1 st 2021 - 16:17
After two places of 2nd behind the breakaway riders in the first two stages of the Critérium du Dauphiné, Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain Victorious) made the most of the uphill finish in Saint-Haon-Le-Vieux. Alex Aranburu (Astana-Premier Tech) opened the sprint from far away but the Italian all-rounder was prompt to react and overtake the Spanish puncheur on the line. The young American Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) came 3d, showing his strength on the eve of the individual time-trial. Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) finished at the front to narrowly hold on to the yellow and blue jersey but tomorrow's stage will shake the general classification ahead of the mountainous challenges.
The 143-man peloton at the start of stage 3 honour the memory of Pierre Chany, who was born in Langeac in 1922 and became one of the greatest cycling journalists of the 20th century. The uphill start sees two riders break away at km 1.5: Omer Goldstein (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Loïc Vliegen (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert). Lukas Pöstlberger’s Bora-Hansgrohe control the break and the gap doesn’t get higher than 3’20’’ after 54km.
Tension in the bunch…
Meanwhile, Goldstein had already taken the first KOM point of the day atop the Côte d’Allègre (km 29.4). He also leads the way through the intermediate sprint in Viverols (km 65.8) and over the second categorised climb of the day, the cat-3 Col des Limites (km 83.9).
Michel Ries (Trek-Segafredo) works with Bora-Hansgrohe to control the gap but the intensity suddenly picks up on the way up and down the Col des Limites. The gap decreases to 45’’ on the downhill… But no splits appear in the bunch and the calm returns in the valley, not for too long.
The gap goes up and down from 30 seconds to 1 minute and a half, as many teams try to position their leaders at the front of the peloton ahead of the finale. The peloton only trail by 35’’ as they enter the last 30km. Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) sustains a mechanical with 29km to go but he quickly gets back to the bunch while Vliegen goes solo at the front of the race.
And tension in the sprint
The Belgian baroudeur is eventually caught with 22km to go. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) is involved in a crash 7km later. His Cofidis teammates drop back to help him return to the bunch despite the very hard pace laid by Ineos Grenadiers at the front.
Michal Kwiatkowski leads the way inside the final kilometre for the British squad. Alex Aranburu jumps with 300m to go but Colbrelli is immediately on his wheel. The Italian all-rounder still has the strength to overtake the Spanish puncheur in the final uphill metres while Brandon McNulty finishes 3rd ahead of Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo).
