Wout van Aert sprints to victory from Ethan Hayter on opening stage of Criterium du Dauphine

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) timed his sprint to perfection to take the opening stage of the Criterium Du Dauphine. Jumbo-Visma are using the Dauphine as prep work for the Tour de France, with a number of their star names in the field. Ad/> Primoz Roglic will come into play later in the race, but the opening stage into Beauchastel looked tailor made for Van Aert.

CyclingDumoulin to retire from cycling at the end of the season03/06/2022 AT 12:59 It played out to perfection for the Belgium champion, as he got in the wheels inside the final couple of kilometres before pulling out and proving too strong for Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers). “Looking at the profile, we could see a hard final so I hung on and felt good for the sprint, so really nice,” Van Aert said. “I was quite comfortable on the climbs.

«Still in the sprint guys like Hayer you have to beat them. It was tough to pass him, but happy. “We have a strong team so we will try and defend and at the weekend hopefully turn it over to Primoz.” Dumoulin to retire from cycling at the end of the season Froome can forget hopes of Tour win — McEwan Maxime Bouet (Arkea Samsic), Laurens Huys (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) and Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels — KTM) went away early, but were kept on a leash and left to dangle by the peloton.

They were brought back on the final climb with 30 km to go, at which point Mikkel Honore (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) went on a solo effort, but he was never able to build a telling advantage. With showers making the road surface slick in patches, Ineos Grenadiers went to the front with the objective of staying safe and setting the stage up for Hayter. Remi Cavagna (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) went off the front inside the final 2km and opened up n