Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) experienced a complete off-day as the Criterium du Dauphiné kicked off today, losing over eight minutes to David Veilleux (Europcar) and surely dropping out of contention for the overall win.

Named among the pre-race outsider, Talansky entered the Dauphiné after a series of promising performances earlier in the season. However, on Thursday the American was struck down with an illness and on today's first stage he was compelled to drop back on the penultimate climb.

“Andrew had stomach problems,” Garmin-Sharp’s Geert Van Bondt said according to Cyclingnews.com.

“With a hard stage like today it was very difficult for him. He was under pressure on the climbs and was vomiting. He had a pretty bad day actually.”

David Veilleux took a surprise stage win and now, evidently, leads the race with Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) more than two minutes down.