Going into the Criterium du Dauphiné, Tejay van Garderen said that he aimed at the GC while also building his form for the Tour de France but after a disappointing performance in today's first mountain stage, the American now changes his focus. Having crashed in the Tour de Romandie, his latest real race was the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and his team is convinced that he is suffering from his long absence from competition.

Darwin Atapuma was the BMC Racing Team's best finisher in Monday's mountain-top finish at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Atapuma arrived at the summit of Col du Béal in 24th place, 2:11 behind stage winner Chris Froome (Team Sky), who out-sprinted Alberto Contador at the end of the 156-kilometer race that featured six categorized climbs.

Froome increased his overall lead to 12 seconds over Contador while BMC Racing Team's Tejay van Garderen, who was ninth in Sunday's opening 10.4-km individual time trial, finished 33rd, 2:38 back. BMC Racing Team Sport Director Yvon Ledanois said he hopes van Garderen will continue to build his form after crashing in the prologue of the Tour de Romandie last month.

"Tejay did a good job at home with his training and also with me in a training camp, but his last race was really two months ago at Pays Basque," Ledanois said. "Now, the objective for Tejay is to keep coming back and to have one good stage."

Atapuma said he did his best to help van Garderen before riding to a result that moved him from 131st to 31st in the overall standings.

"It was hard with Sky on the front," Atapuma said. "I was a little bit disappointed for the final because I knew it was important for the team and for me to be there with Tejay. But I hope to get a good result for the team this week."