Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) has been put under pressure by his team and needs to prove in the Criterium du Dauphiné that he deserves a selection for the Tour de France. Today he sent the best possible signal to his team managers by finishing 17th in the opening time trial and the result was a big relief for the Belgian climber.

On the first day of the Critérium du Dauphiné the riders had to cover a time trial of 10,4 kilometers in the streets of Lyon. Jurgen Van den Broeck had a good start of the stage race with the seventeenth place at fifteen seconds of winner Froome.

On the course was one climb of fourth category, 800 meters long with an average gradient of 5.5%. At the top of that Montée de l'Observance, after 4.6 kilometers of racing, there was the only intermediate time check. Van den Broeck set the fifth best time of all riders there, at three seconds of Vincenzo Nibali who was the fastest at that point of the course.

It was Chris Froome who won the time trial. Contador got second at eight seconds, Jungels third at nine seconds. With a time of 13'28" Van den Broeck finished seventeenth, at fifteen seconds of Froome.

"Of course this pleases me a lot," he said. "A short opening time trial isn't really my specialty but when I finish at only a handful of seconds of the specialists, then that's a relief.

"I went full on the climb, was second at the top at the time at one second of leader Jungels, rode a good descent and tried to keep it up until the finish. I felt very well but you do have to wait for confirmation in the result. It's of course only the first day of this Dauphiné, but it does offer perspective."

"This is a very good sign," Sports director Herman Frison said. "It isn't his specialty but he set a good result. It's not so much the place that counts, but the few amount of seconds he loses. Two seconds behind place eight, four seconds behind place four and seven seconds behind place two. Froome obviously was unapproachable.

"Bart De Clercq rode a good time trial and Jürgen Roelandts shows progression after the Belgium Tour."