Chris Froome has said that he could not be happier with the result after taking victory on the opening stage of the 66th Critérium du Dauphiné.
Froome stormed to victory with a time of 13.13 for a 10.4km time trial in Lyon, a victory which put him eight seconds ahead of Alberto Contador of Tinkoff Saxo, who will be one of the main threats to Froome's hopes of retaining his title.
“I don’t think it was necessarily the objective to take the yellow jersey today on such a short, flat time trial but I couldn’t be happier with the result,” said Froome to the Team Sky Press office.
“I’m here to win the race and we’re going to do everything we can. Obviously it’s the most important to try and have the yellow jersey at the end of the race, not necessarily right now.
“The Dauphine this year is really hard right from the opening stages. I think tomorrow again we can expect a really big race in the mountains.”
The mountains come straight away with a 156km stage from Tarare to- Pays d’Olliergues-Col du Béal, which sees three category two climbs, one category three, one category four plus a sprint before the final hors category climb of the 1312m Col du Béal.