Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) lost nine seconds of his slim lead in the Critérium du Dauphiné on stage 4, when he found himself on the wrong side of a split in the peloton caused by a crash from Cofidis rider Borut Bozic. He now leads the overall classification by just four seconds on Chris Froome (Sky), who made the front split and gained nine seconds.
It was an unexpected result to a stage that should have been uncomplicated for the overall contenders, who were content to take a back seat to the sprinters on the relatively flat 176km stage from Tain-l'Hermitage to Belley.
Contador said the stage was calm as expected until the finish, which he described as "truly crazy". "Initially, it seemed as if the group would cross the finish line together. However, right after the 2km mark there was a big pile-up which caused gaps in the peloton."
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The crash was caused when Cofidis rider Borut Bozic clipped a concrete barrier and flew through the air into the peloton, luckily only taking out AG2R La Mondiale's Alexis Gougeard and not causing a bigger wreck. But the disruption to a very high pace was enough to cause the split, according to Tinkoff directeur sportif Steven De Jongh.
"The crash caused some real uncertainty in the group. We were expecting the 3km rule to be applied, but we ended up losing time," De Jongh said. "Alberto and some of the other GC riders tried to fight back to the front, but some of the other teams' sprint train riders sat up and delayed the riders behind and the commissaries allowed the time gaps to stand."
De Jongh was frustrated by the decision not to apply the UCI rule 2.6.027 which states, "In the case of a duly noted fall, puncture or mechanical incident in the last three kilometers of a road race stage, the rider or riders involved shall be credited with the time of the rider or riders in whose company they were riding at the moment of the accident," therefore Contador should be given the same time as the stage winner.
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