Good start for Astana of 70th edition of Critérium du Dauphiné

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Finishing in front of some GC favorites, Pello Bilbao had a good start of the 70th edition of Critérium du Dauphiné. He finished 21 seconds from winner Michal Kwiatkowski. Michael Valgren was the fastest rider of Astana Pro Team today, he finished just sixteen seconds behind the Polish rider, Kazinform has learnt from the club's official website.

"It was a very explosive prologue, and first I thought I still didn't recover enough from the Giro d'Italia. But after all, I'm happy with my time. At the end, these time gaps won't make a difference, as the final stages will create much bigger time gaps. Now it's time to recover and to see what we can do during this Critérium du Dauphiné, as it will be a very hard race with some challenging mountain stages. The feeling is good and I'm happy with this start, now I will try to get back in the rhythm of the Giro for the final stages of this race," said Pello Bilbao.

The 70th edition of the Critérium du Dauphiné took off with a spectacular prologue of 6.6 kilometers through the streets of Valence. The fastest rider of the day for Astana Pro Team was Michael Valgren, who finished in 7'41", just sixteen seconds behind winner Michal Kwiatkowski. Pello Bilbao did a great effort by finishing in between the other climbers in the stage results, just a week after finishing sixth in the GC of the Giro d'Italia.

Tomorrow will be the first stage of this year's Dauphiné, a 179 kilometers from Valence to Saint-Just-Saint-Rambert. A stage with seven categorized climbs, which will make it a hard day on the road for all the riders.