Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) brought a testing first months of 2013 to an end when he outsprinted Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) to take the win in the queen stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné. Having just finished the Giro d'Italia in a very disappointing 12th place, the Spaniard was very happy to finally deliver its team some success and increase its confidence with the Tour de France coming up in just a few weeks time.

It has been a very bad start to the 2013 season for the Euskaltel team. Having been unable to take a win until the middle of April where Pablo Urtasun and Juan Jose Lobato both won stages at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, the team was unable to perform as expected in its big home race, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and the Giro d'Italia - a major target this  year - did not pan out the way the team wanted.

The team's undisputed leader Samuel Sanchez was expected to put the team back on track in the Italian grand tour but for the first time since 2005 the Spaniard completed a grand tour outside the top 10. He came close to a stage win on two occasions but the results were clearly not what the team had been looking for.

With the Tour de France never an option for Sanchez this year - the world championships are his most likely target for the rest of the season - he chose to line up at the Criterium du Dauphiné to use his Giro condition to put the team back on track prior to the Tour de France. After a difficult start to the race, he succeeded in doing just that when he won today's queen stage.

Unsurprisingly, the win came as a huge relief to Sanchez.

"It’s going to be wonderful for Euskaltel to start the Tour de France with this prestigious victory," he said. "We had just won two races this year but nothing in the World Tour. We didn’t get what we wanted from the Giro d’Italia, so it was good to keep going and come to here looking for something like this."

"Personally, I won’t race the Tour this year. I need to take a rest. It means a lot to me and the team to win at the Dauphiné. I dedicate it to my friend and team-mate Victor Cabedo who died a few months ago.”

Sanchez had attacked on the penultimate climb of the Col du Noyer and was joined by Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) just after the top. The Dane was by far the strongest on the final climb to the finish but the Spaniard dug deep to stay in his wheel, even responding to a hard attack. In the sprint, he had no trouble beating his companion to finally take that elusive win.

Sanchez did nothing to hide that Fuglsang had been a tough competitor.

 "I’ve suffered a lot, especially in the last three kilometers", he said.  "Fuglsang was very strong but I gave everything I had to beat him at the end."

Sanchez will get one final opportunity for success before he takes a short break from competition. Tomorrow's final stage of the race is another tough summit finish and you can follow Sanchez's exploits at 12.45 on CyclingQuotes.com/live.