The opening stage at the Critérium du Dauphiné offered one of very few chances for the sprinters in the race, so from the flag drop the peloton made it clear that it would be a bunch sprint finish with only a two rider break escaping early on. Staying within the peloton, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL looked to keep each other in position, with the aim of setting up Emils Liepins for the finale.
Coming into the last local lap with around 25 kilometres to go the break was almost all but caught, but Liepins unfortunately had an issue and had to stop to switch onto his spare bike. Making his way back through the convoy on the twisting roads, the guys then dropped back from the group and helped bring him back to the bunch. Yet, it was difficult to move up so he and the team had to bide their time until the road became wider in the closing eight kilometres. A fantastic job by the squad saw Martijn Tusveld and Warren Barguil do some early positioning work, before last lead-out rider Niklas Märkl expertly dropped off Liepins in the wheel of Pedersen coming under the flamme rouge. Using his bike handling skills, Liepins held firm from any challenges and was locked in for the sprint finish but a terrible bit of misfortune with a dropped chain at 500 metres to go completely derailed he and the teams efforts; meaning no result on the day.
At the finish line Märkl expressed: “It was a pretty controlled stage throughout the day. It wasn’t a totally flat parcours but the peloton was keen from the start to make it a bunch sprint. We rode pretty well together I think. We were really vocal with each other and communicated well throughout the day. Coming into the last lap we had to change Emils’ bike after a mechanical. On the narrow roads it was hard to move up but we had two guys help bring him back up for the final. We then did a pretty good lead-out I think and I dropped off Emils in Pedersen’s wheel for the sprint. Unfortunately his chain then dropped and we couldn’t go for a result in the end, but I think we have shown that we have good legs and that we can do something here. The next few days are in the mountains but stage five is again more for the fast guys, so we will see for that, or if there are chances for the breakaway. The morale is high and we will keep on going.”
