It wasn't the first strike of Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne). 'El Imbatido" (The Unbeatable) already won Monday's first stage in Privas.
Valverde is full of self-confidence now. "I'm a little bit surprised
myself", he said, before giving details about his ride: "The first part of the time trial was uphill, something I love, and
then technical downhill suits me well."
Valverde
continued: "I absolved a good training camp in the Sierra Nevada [in Andalucia, Spain, editor]. Now, I want to
be fit for the Tour de France."
But Valverde also wants to win the Dauphiné now: "I am feeling really
good since the prologue and we will defend the jersey. But its not going to be easy with the competition there is here and
there are some difficult stages with a lot of mountains ahead of us."
Cadel Evans, 3rd at yesterday's time trial and 3rd overall said: "This
time trial went like I had expected. I am not desperate, on the contrary."
Valverde continued: "There was nothing you could do about Valverde but
without that slip in the first part I and not Leipheimer would have been second."
"It gives me hope that I was faster than Valverde in the final part.
He has become much better intime trialing and will be fit in the Tour."
Evans is very happy with how the team is developing. "I see the Tour team growing every day, very promising."
His knee problems seem to be history. "I rode strong on the climbs but I didn't
take any risk on the descending parts. It would be a mistake to do so, three weeks before the Tour de France. I feel in good
shape, my knee didn't hurt today. Now, an other Dauphiné begins for me," Evans concluded.
Fourth placed Maxime Monfort is knocking on the door of the overall
favourites. Monfort said: Losing a minute on Valverde and less than 40 seconds on Evans and Leipheimer is more than just good."
Monfort added: "I have to admit that it was an ideal course for me.
The time trial was not to hard and not to dangerous. Because of the rain I did not want to go full gas everywhere. You don't
have to take any risks shortly before the Tour."
"Now follows a four day long test in the high mountains. Preparing for
the Tour will stay my main objective. The overall of the Dauphiné is not my goal."
"I'm not sure I will be able to follow the best riders in the mountains, especially
on climbs such as the "Salève" and Joux-Plane", tempered the promissing Cofidis's rider.
Milram's Andrey Grivko rode into the top ten with a strong performance.
The 24 year-old Ukranian rider crashed on the wet cobblestones shortly before the finish, which cost him valuable time. Still
Grivko clocked the 8th time, 1:47 behind Valverde. "Unfortunately the luck just wasn't on our side," said Milram's sports
director Jochen Hahn. "Andrey was going very well. Unfortunately the crash cost him about 45 seconds, otherwise he might
have finished much higher."
Rabobank's Robert Gesink lost a little over two minutes to stage winner Alejandro Valverde. In the general classification
Gesink rose to the eighth place on 2:28 minutes behind Valverde. Those two rankings satisfied the Rabobank team. Sports
director Adri van Houwelingen was a little less excited about the time gap.
"Two minutes is quite a lot in my opinion. Also in Robert's opinion, by the way," felt van Houwelingen. During the
exploration of the track on Wednesday morning, the sports director had noted that the differences in major time trials are
smaller this season than in other years. "But such a remark is immediately punished, that always happens. Even though there
are only three riders who tower above everyone else. Robert held his own against the rest. The rankings are satisfactory.
It would have been nice if the difference had been a little better."
The course was not to the disadvantage of Gesink, who, unlike many other classification riders, had chosen for two open
wheels. For a while it went more than good for the young climber. Until the last part, where he lost most time in relation
to the others. Van Houwelingen: "Robert had spotted some minor flaws with himself. Such as the final descent. He was of the
opinion that that could have been better. But that was a dangerous descent. So I thought it was okay. No risks, because the
coming days might be fun."
The race heads into the mountains today. What can we expect from Gesink there? Van Houwelingen: "Robert is now two and
a half minutes behind. A difference that you do not easily make up for. Robert has to lay low on Thursday and Friday and gear
his race towards that of the top riders. I think Saturday's stage suits him best. We see some opportunities there."
CSC - Saxo Bank rider Lars Bak did well in the time trial and finished
just outside of top-10. "Lars continues to demonstrate great form and he emphasized that he's ready to defend his title at
the Danish National Championships later this month. Of course he wanted to finish in the top-10, but like he said afterwards
he couldn't have been faster, so he was satisfied with his performance," said Team CSC -Saxo Bank sports director Scott Sunderland
after the race.
Wednesday's time trial was dominated by a lot of rain and for Carlos
Sastre it wasn't the test he'd hoped for. The Spaniard finished 65th, 3:52 behind stage winner Valverde.
"We'd talked
about it beforehand and Carlos decided to use his regular bike because it's safer than the time trial bike, when it's raining.
He was very careful on the descent so it's impossible to evaluate his performance as a whole, because the rhythm wasn't the
same as if it was a more important time trial in the Tour. The climbs over the next few days will give a more adequate picture,"
concluded Sunderland.
Cyril Dessel was riding "at home" yesterday, on his training roads.
The AG2R rider didn't want to take risks on wet and dangerous roads however. "I was encouraged by my fans but I was afraid
to crash because of the euphoria." 22th of the stage, he was fairly happy with the way he rode: "It could have been better,
but that's ok."
The
race will continue today with the 193 kilometres long fourth stage from Vienne to Annemasse. The riders will have to
climb the Côte du Mont des Princes (3rd category), the Côte de Saint - Jean (4th category) before they reach the final climb
of the day: Le Salève. After they reached the top (175.5 km mark) of this first category climb, riders who were
dropped have 17.5 kilometres of descending where they can try to bridge-up again. Its not a stage where you can win the
Dauphiné, but you can certainly lose the race on today's fourth stage. Click here to view the map and profile of stage 4.
