Dates 6–13 June Distance 1,080 km (671.1 mi) Winner Janez Brajkovič (SVN) | Stages 7+prologue Winning time 28h 06' 28" Second Alberto Contador (ESP) | |
The 2010 Critérium du Dauphiné was the 62nd edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné (formerly Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré) stage race, and the first since it was renamed. It took place from 6–13 June, and was part of both the 2010 UCI ProTour and World Calendar. It began in Evian-les-Bains with an individual time trial, and ended in Sallanches.
Contents
The race was won by Slovenia's Janez Brajkovič, riding for Team RadioShack. Second in the general classification was Alberto Contador of Astana, while Tejay van Garderen finished third for Team HTC–Columbia. Contador won the points classification on a tie-break with Brajkovič, Euskaltel–Euskadi's Egoi Martínez won the mountains classification and Euskaltel-Euskadi also won the teams classification.
Pre-race favorites
The winner of the event for the previous two years, Alejandro Valverde, had been widely tipped to do well in the event, but was banned from all of UCI registered races for 19 months from a few days prior to the event. Two time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador started the race as favourite, but emphasized that his priority was to use the race as preparation for the Tour de France, without particular concern to win it.
Teams
As the Dauphiné Libéré was a UCI ProTour event, the 18 ProTour teams are invited automatically, plus an additional 4 non pro tour teams. They are:
Prologue
If the prologue is any indication of Alberto Contador's form, then he should be well-prepared for the 2010 Tour de France. The Spaniard won the 6.8 km time trial, beating the likes of Janez Brajkovic, Denis Menchov, and Edvald Boasson Hagen.
2nd-place finisher, Tejay van Garderen stunned everyone by his supuerb performance today. Cycling News said, "Contador was almost embarrassed to have won his first race since riding Liège–Bastogne–Liège over a month ago, where he placed 9th overall. He insisted in a pre-race press conference that he was not specifically targeting overall success at the Critérium du Dauphiné and said that he would let the race lead go during Monday's 191km first road stage..."
Stage and General Classification after Prologue