Cycling: Evans wins Dauphine first stage

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Cycling: Evans wins Dauphine first stage

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Cadel Evans of Australia won a sprint finish to claim the first stage of the Dauphine Libere race.

05 June,2012 05:24 am

Tour de France champion Cadel Evans of Australia won a sprint finish to claim the first stage of the Dauphine Libere race here on Monday, as Britains Bradley Wiggins took the overall leaders jersey.BMC rider Evans, 35, outsprinted Frances Jerome Coppel and Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin over the final 4km in the 187km stage, with Luxembourgs Andy Schleck falling off on the final climb to finish three minutes off the pace.Spains 2008 Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez sustained a heavy fall but was able to continue riding, in what is a key warm-up race for the Tour de France.The 34-year-old, who was on Friday named in the Spanish team for the London Olympics, came down in a mass crash 47km into the first stage from Seyssins.Skys Wiggins leads Evans by one second in the overall standings in the race, which saw Australias Luke Durbridge prevail in Sundays prologue.Tuesdays second stage covers 160km from Lamastre to Saint-Felicien in the Ardennes.