Romeo wins Dauphine stage three to take yellow jersey

Ivan Romeo rode solo to victory on stage three of the Criterium du Dauphine to claim the yellow leader’s jersey.

The Movistar rider made a couple of attacks before going clear of a group of 10 riders with about 6km left in the 202.8km route from Brioude.

Mathieu van der Poel led the chase group, but they had left it too late and Romeo crossed the line first in Charantonnay, near Lyon, some 14 seconds ahead of Harold Tejada, Louis Barre and Florian Lipowitz.

“I don’t believe it,” said Romeo. “It was one of the toughest days of my life so far.

“The breakaway, it was so hard to get into it, and I wasn’t feeling really good, so I waited to the last moment.

“I know in this kind of flat finish in a small break, I have good instinct, and that if they give me some seconds I can make it.

“I had this stage on my mind for a month. We’ve been doing altitude [training] at Sierra Nevada, working super hard with all the team, and they gave me this chance at the beginning of the week.”

Romeo was the under-23 time trial champion at last year’s World Championships and Tuesday’s success means he has a 17-second lead in the Dauphine’s general classification standings heading into the time trial.