The times when Tour de France contenders willing to fine-tune their disposition ahead of their season’s biggest objective were given few easy days in the saddle at the Criterium du Dauphine are over, as this year’s edition of French stage race provided them with an opportunity to test themselves in the mountains on the second day of competition.

Even though the second stage didn’t offer an extremely big challenge in regards to difficulty of particular ascents, six categorized climbs including the mountaintop finish at the HC Col du Beal made for a tough day in the saddle and it was absolutely clear that race favorites would be determined to test each other's strength in the finale.

As expected, Team Sky took all the responsibility to chase the day’s breakaway and just as the last escapee, Alessandro De Marchi, was reeled back with 7 kilometers to go, the real battle begun from which Chris Froome emerged as the strongest, consolidating his overall lead over Alberto Contador to 12 seconds and further 9 over impressive Wilco Kelderman.

Stage start delayed

The stage was off to a delayed start after race organizers reported some technical problems at the Col de Beal and all 168 lined up following yesterday’s prologue.
 

Day’s breakaway is formed

Just after the racing has started, usually very active Kevin Reza (Europcar) took off and was quickly joined by four other riders: Alessandro de Marchi (Cannondale), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Matthias Brändle (IAM Cycling) and Thomas Damuseau (Giant-Shimano) after passing the first categorized climb of the day, the Côte de St-Marcel-L'Eclairé (2,5km at 6,1%).

Reza goes for the polka dot jersey

The Europcar rider revealed his ambitions to go for a polka dot jersey, as he won opening two sprints to on Côte de St-Marcel-L'Eclairé and Côte d'Albigny (2,3km at 5,3%) to take a provisional lead in the mountains classification. As the escapees passed a 20 kilometer-mark, the gap has been stabilized around 4 minutes with Matthias Brändle taking a vistual lead in the race, as Team Sky took responsibility for dictating a pace in the peloton.

Sky ups the pace on flat section

As day’s early breakaway consisted of dangerous riders, including last year’s stage winner and relentless escapee de Marchi or highly talented Gougeard, Team Sky took a whole responsibility for a chase and upped a pace on the only long flat section of today’s course to reduce breakaway’s advantage to 3.40 at the 50 kilometer-mark.

Gap increases again

The breakaway regained an advantage of over 4 minutes on the peloton while hitting the mountains again, as Reza continued his quest to become the king of the mountains with winning next two KOM sprints on Côte de Bard (6,3km at 5,3%) and Col de la Croix de l'Homme Mort (5,6km at 5,6%). However, his breakaway companion De Marchi also kept all possibilities opened as he crested the summit runner up on three out of four occasions and rode impressively in the 2013 edition of Criterium du Dauphine, claiming a victory in the final stage finishing in Risoul.

Kiryienka does the chase work

With 50 kilometers to go, Team Sky remained the only force in the peloton responsible for a chase, with Tinkoff-Saxo and Astana keeping their leaders safe in the front. As Vasili Kiryienka set a fierce pace, the gap has been reduced again and stabilized around 3.50. Meanwhile, unsurprisingly Reza won the final KOM sprint at the Col des Pradeaux before approaching the mountaintop finish at the Col du Beal, while virtual race leader Brändle took the intermediate sprint at Ambert ahead of Damuseau and unstoppably active De Marchi.

Taaramae hits the deck

As a fierce fight for a position between strongest squads has started, a massive pile-up in the peloton occurred with Estonian Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) and Mikael Cherel (Ag2r La Mondiale) suffering most. With a high race dictated by Team Sky riders it took a long time to bring the Estonian champion back following a bike change, but they managed to do so just before hitting the final climb.

De Marchi attacks

As Team Sky set a strong pace from the botton of the Col du Beal with Mikel Nieve and Geraint Thomas doing most of the chase work, the gap was reduced to less than one minute. Aggressive De Marchi took off on his own, hoping to repeat his amazing achievement from last year’s edition.

Sky wreak havoc on the Col de Beal

Team Sky continued dictating a fierce pace in the peloton with Mikel Nieve at the front, as De Marchi was reeled in with 7 kilometers to go. The high tempo significantly reduced leaders group at this point to about 20 riders, with the likes of  Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), Riche Porte (Team Sky), Michał Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r La Mondiale) being the biggest names among many casualties.

Froome makes decisive move

Only Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) was able to respond when Chris Froome (Team Sky) made first of his trademark accelerations with 5 kilometers to go, and as the cooperation between the duo wasn’t possible, the six-rider leaders group has been formed, additionally including Wilco Kelderman (Belkin), Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).

Leaders continued to attack each other with impressive Kelderman and Talansky being the most active, before Froome made the final acceleration inside the flamme rouge and took a well deserved victory on Col du Beal with Contador on his wheel.