Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) fired a warning shot to his Tour de France rivals with a late attack on stage one of the Criterium du Dauphiné, while Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) finished four seconds back in the chasing peloton to assume the overall lead.
Evans formed part of a three-man group which rode away from the peloton on the final descent and the 2011 Tour de France champion outsprinted Jerome Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) and Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) to the stage win.
Wiggins, who finished second behind Luke Durbridge in Sunday’s prologue, moved into the yellow jersey after the Orica-GreenEDGE rider lost touch with the main group on what was a tough opening stage, with six categorised climbs.
Wiggins has claimed two stage race victories (Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie) so far this season and the Team Sky leader finds himself in the leader’s jersey earlier than expected in what is the 32-year-old’s final test before the Tour de France.
Wiggins now leads Evans by one second in the general classification, setting up a mouth-watering battle for the rest of the week and a preview of what can be expected at the Tour.
“It’s hard to look too much into the results today,” said Wiggins. “I knew Cadel would be good as the Tour de France is coming up and he’s always good at the Tour. There’s no surprise there.
“There’s still a long way to the Tour. That’s the race most guys are preparing for. I’m just trying to concentrate on my own race and I stayed safe today in the front and felt good.
“It’s hard not to compete in this race. I’d rather come to the bike race and go flat out. If I wasn’t doing that I’d have to go training.”
Andy Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) was the day’s major casualty on the 187km stage from Seyssins to Saint-Vallier, with the 2010 Tour de France champion losing contact on the last climb and eventually rolling over the line three minutes and ten seconds behind Evans, while Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) also lost time after crashing.
Evans has struggled to find form this season after suffering with illness through spring but the Australian looks to be coming to the boil at the perfect time, with less than a month until the Tour rolls out of Liege on June 30.
“I’m a racer and I like to race, but to win a lot of things had to go my way today,” said Evans. “Sometimes you make things go your way and you search for the opportunities and you have to try for something somewhere.
“Sometimes you have to be patient but today I had a chance and I took it.”
