Katusha got the Criterium du Dauphiné off to a decent start in the time trial and are looking ahead to tomorrow's first mountain stage with confidence. Simon Spilak, Egor Silin and Daniel Moreno all had decent rides while Yury Trofimov paid the price for a late arrival from Russia.

Racing in France began on Sunday for the 2014 Critérium du Dauphiné, an important lead up race for many top contenders for this year’s Tour de France. The race opened with a 10,4 km time trial in the city center of Lyon.

Under clear skies and warm weather, an early best time was set by 21-year old Bob Jungels (Trek) with the Luxembourger staying in the lead for most of the race with a time of 13.22.   However, once the GC favorites came to the line at the bottom of the start order, his top time was repeatedly challenged, first by former Tour champion Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) with a time of 13.21. Soon the Spaniard’s time was also beaten by 2013 Tour de France champion Christopher Froome who took the win with a best time of 13.13. The best result for Team Katusha came from Simon Špilak at 22-seconds off the pace for 29th place.

Team director Dmitry Konyshev assessed the start for this year’s Dauphiné:

“I think we can be satisfied with the results of Simon Špilak and also Egor Silin (34-seconds). That's ok for the beginning of the race and for such a short time trial as we had today. All the main and difficult stages are still in front of us, and this was the only time trial in this edition of the Dauphiné. 

"Dani Moreno also was not bad. The team is motivated for the mountain stages and I think our team will be in front in these stages. 

"Iurii Trofimov lost some time today, but he has just arrived from Russia, where he had to wait for an English visa. In only 10 km of ITT it was hard for him to get into his race rhythm. But I think after this week he will be in good shape.”

With the win comes the first yellow jersey and Froome’s Sky team will look to defend as the race gets right down to business on Monday with the first of four climbing stages. The 156 km stage begins in Tarare and passes five rated climbs along the way before the uphill finish on the HC Pays d'Olliergues-Col du Béal.