Wout van Aert continues imperious form with Stage 1 win at Criterium du Dauphine

Updated 12/08/2020 at 16:12 GMT

Team Jumbo-Visma rider Wout van Aert continued his imperious form as he won the opening stage of the Criterium du Dauphine.

AUGUST 12: Arrival / Wout Van Aert of Belgium and Team Jumbo - Visma / Celebration / during the 72nd Criterium du Dauphine 2020, Stage 1 a 218,5km stage from Clermont Ferrand to Saint Christo en Jarez 752m / @dauphine / #Dauphiné / on August 12, 2020 in S

Image credit: Getty Images

Van Aert, 24, was the victor at Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo over the past couple of weeks and followed up in style at the Dauphine.

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Team Jumbo-Visma, who have been in excellent form, controlled the final stages with Primoz Roglic in the hunt as well.

However, no-one could live with Van Aert, last year’s points champion who won two stages, as he exploded on the final climb, hitting over 40 km/h.

WATCH - Wout van Aert storms to victory

Daryl Impey came in second, with Tour de France holder Egan Bernal rounding off the podium.

However, there was less good news for Bernal's team-mate Chris Froome, who continues to struggle after his return from injury.

Froome was dropped with a few kilometres to go, coming in 5'23 behind the leaders eventually. The final part of Team Ineos' 'Big Three', Geraint Thomas, came in safely as part of the group behind the winner.

Chris Froome dropped towards the end of race

After the race Van Aert praised his team, acknowledging just how many big names they have.

"Apparently I have good legs," he said. "I came really tired to the hotel yesterday, after a few days off. The team still wanted to do a perfect job for me today because we saw some chances in the stage.

'Apparently I have good legs!' - Wout van Aert on his victory

"When you have riders like Tony Martin and all these strong leaders, they pulled for me in the end, I had so much motivation to do all I could in the sprint. It was just a great victory.

"It was good for us we saw the finish line already, we had a better view than on the computer. When we passed through (the first time) I told the guys I was feeling good and wanted to give it a go.

"When we started to go uphill I had a whole yellow train in front - even in the end we had Primoz [Roglic] and Steven [Kruijswijk] are still the leaders but this is a big team victory. We keep the momentum."

It keeps Jumbo-Visma rolling with the Dutch team really flexing their muscles in the past few weeks ahead of the Tour.

JUMBO-VISMA DOMINANT AGAIN

It chimes with what Sir Bradley Wiggins said on the most recent episode of his podcast, The Bradley Wiggins Show by Eurosport.

“They do everything now, don’t they,” Wiggins told host Graham Willgoss in episode four of the current podcast season.

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“They might not win everything but they place riders in Grand Tours more consistently, they win these one-day races, they won the team time trial in the Tour last year.

“I know Ineos get the job done when it really matters but where was (Michal) Kwiatkowski on Saturday? I think he was quite far down, top 50 maybe. They (Jumbo-Visma) seem to have riders in every kind of race, they’ve really come to the fore now.”