Once again David Veilleux was safely escorted through a stage at the Criterium du Dauphiné by his Europcar teammates who made sure that the Canadian secured a third day in the yellow jersey. Tomorrow it is all up to himself to defend the lead in the race against the clock, and the Canadian has no idea of his chances against some of the world's best time triallists.
David Veilleux enjoyed another day in the spotlight when he safely stayed near the front of the bunch throughout the entire 3rd stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné which once again finished in a bunch sprint, this time won by Edvald Boasson Hagen Sky. He comfortably finished in the main group and could step onto the podium to receive another yellow jersey at the end of the race.
A 4-rider break rode away from kilometer 0 and with Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil) less than 2 minutes behind Veilleux, the Europcar team had to take control. For the first 110km the French team was responsible for the pace-setting and kept the gap stable at around 6 minutes until the sprinters' teams took over the reins.
Once again Veilleux was full of praise for his teammates.
"They rode very well," he said. "The break left at kilometer 0 and we began to chase. Again, my teammates have done a fantastic job. Kévin Reza, Pierre Rolland, Anthnoy Charteau and Perrig Quemeneur came to the front and protected me well."
"Today’s stage has been a bit less difficult than yesterday’s. Pretty early, other teams like Omega Pharma-Quick Step and FDJ have taken over from us. However, the speed went up towards the end. It wasn’t easy to keep up. I’ve been well escorted, particularly by Cyril Gautier."
Tomorrow he will, however, not be able to rely on his teammates as he will have to negotiate the 32,5km time trial on his own. He currently leads 2nd placed Gianni Meersman by 1.56 while more than 50 riders follow a further second behind. That group contains a number of strong time triallists and it will be tough to keep riders like Chris Froome, Richie Porte, Rohan Dennis, Michael Kwiatkowski and Sylvain Chavanel at bay.
The Canadian does not know how he will stand up against the best riders as he has little experience in riding a time trial to the maximum of his capacity.
"Tomorrow, I’ll face up to the truth," he said. "I’ll do my best and we’ll see how it goes. Honestly, I do not know how I stand in relation to the others. I am not used to doing a time trial full gas. It may be possible (to keep the jersey, ed.) but I do really not know what I'm worth. I can lose the jersey by a large margin or I can keep it by a few seconds."
Whether he keeps the jersey for another day or not, the experience has been a wonderful experience for the Canadian. His performance has once again put cycling in the spotlight in his home country one year after Ryder Hesjedal's Giro win.
"In any case, those past three days have been fabulous," he said. "I’ve received a lot of encouragements from Canada where I’ve made the front page of the newspapers. It’s been a great opportunity to seize."
Starting at 11.00 you can follow tomorrow's time trial in its entirety on CyclingQuotes.com/live.
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