Tinkoff-Saxo’s Jay McCarthy remains in the overall top ten of Critérium du Dauphiné sitting 8th before the tricky TTT. While Nacer Bouhanni took the stage win, the last part of the race was affected by a crash, where Chris Anker Sørensen and Jesper Hansen were caught behind. However, they managed to claw their way back to the chasing peloton.
 
Following stage 2, where Jay McCarthy finished as the best placed Tinkoff-Saxo rider in the 16thspot, team sports director Patxi Vila explains that the plan had been to stay put in the bunch.
 
“Today was a fast stage after yesterday’s opener. After the start we hit a short but pretty steep climb, where the breakaway of three guys went. Then we faced a more serious climb of around 7km with a 7 per cent average. The breakaway stayed out all day and wasn’t caught until just before the final kilometers. For us it was fine, as our plan was to stay in the bunch and get to the finish line, where we would try to set up Jay McCarthy in the sprint”, says Patxi Vila before adding:
 
“We were aiming for another top ten and our goal was to keep Jay well positioned and at the same time look out for Kiserlovski and his GC ambitions, which will come into play in a few days. We made it to the finish line with nearly the whole team but Jay didn’t quite get the result and he finished 16th. Today it didn’t happen, but in general the team is feeling well and they have worked together in a good way”.

Stage 2 of Critérium du Dauphiné took the riders 173km from Le Bourget-du-Lac to Parc des Oiseaux Villars-les-Dombes, where Nacer Bouhanni (COF) took the stage win in the final burst for the line. However, just around the 20km marker, a crash mid-field blocked several Tinkoff-Saxo riders, who had to fight to regain contact with the chasing peloton.
 
“We had some guys, who were involved in the crash in the late part of the race. They had just made their way back to the rear of the peloton after having assisted Jay and they were caught behind. It wasn’t a serious crash, but Chris Anker and Jesper Hansen were blocked and had to fight their way to get back up. The peloton was going at full speed to catch the break, so the fact that they made it back up again shows that they have the legs”, tells Patxi Vila before elaborating on tomorrow’s 24.5km team time trial.
 
“Now we look forward to the TTT tomorrow, where it’s important to get a decent result to support Kiserlovski in the GC. On paper we don’t have the strongest team for the TTT but we will have some reference times from the other teams and our squad is very homogeneous, which is important”.