In a new feature, the Cyclingnews team pick their rider of the day from the Criterium du Dauphine. Fabio Aru is the third rider to be chosen at Criterium du Dauphine, and we will be selecting a rider after each stage.
When Aru attacked on the Côte de Sécheras descent, and began hurtling toward the finish of stage 3 in Touron-sur-Rhone, it was the sprinters' teams, not the overall contenders who began to feel alarm as he opened up first a handful of seconds, then 15 full clicks as the last kilometre drew near.
Aru began the stage 1:27 down on race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), but took a chance on the final climb, entering into a lead split with the likes of teammate Luis Leon Sanchez, Mikel Landa (Sky), Tsgabu Grmay (Lampre-Merida), Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) and a few others. When the group looked at Astana to do the work, Aru decided to risk life and limb, several times nearly coming to grief on the technical descent, as he rocketed away and let the Katusha-led peloton catch his former companions.
ADVERTISEMENT
It was a hair-raising descent, with Aru tucked low, seated on his top tube in a style successfully employed in the past by riders like Peter Sagan and Taylor Phinney. Aru's reputation as a descender isn't quite to the level of those two. However, he looked more like Paolo Savoldelli as he blasted around turns, leaning in, nearly scraping abutments.
Aru's ride was impressive, unexpected, and fully deserving of the Rider of the Day prize.
"This morning I thought about trying something," Aru said after the stage. "I came into this race having not raced for a long time. My last race was Amstel Gold and I then spent 23 days training at altitude. So when I arrived here I didn't have the speed in my legs and I lost time in the opening time trial. That stage wasn't really for me."
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/1Zzg20Y
No comments:
Post a Comment